1.    Why do you text?

     Jonathan Pettigrew - “Overwhelmingly, text messages are being used to commence, advance, maintain, or otherwise influence interpersonal relationships” (3). 

Megan – “Because generally when it comes down to it, I don’t want to speak to people."





     
Andrea – “Because when I didn’t have texting people would always say: 'hey I text you, why didn’t you text me back?'”

Kara – didn’t text and she said: “Bryan, I cannot tell you how many dates I have missed out on because of not texting.  Because guys will text you instead of calling you now, and when you don’t respond they think you’ve shafted them… They thought I was a big, big snob.” She recently added texting to her cell plan.

It appears that the majority of college aged individuals choose to text because it makes them feel more included in their unique social circle: tightening the ties of interpersonal relations.  They text because they want to appear cool to the outside world, and to separate themselves as a class of technologically savvy individuals.

2.    Do you change the way you speak when you text?

     Sarah Butt - “extraverts felt their true identity was accurately expressed through more traditional forms of social interaction…while past research suggests that greater introversion will be associated with more time spent sending and receiving SMS” (3).

     Kyle – “It’s like when Michael Scott from “The Office” gets frustrated that people don’t tell jokes correctly: that’s how I feel sometimes when I try to tell a joke via a text message… Sometimes I just like to sound funny, and to see how people will react to me when I act that way.”

     Laurie – “Sometimes I use LOL when I am just smiling not really laughing. For a while I tried to get people to use LLOL when they were literally laughing out loud…(yeah) that never caught on.”

     Goose - “Oh yeah, oh yeah.  Actually speaking about that do you want to hear the last message I just sent to this girl: ‘oh by the way I think you should know that when a player like me steps up to the plate he pimp slaps it out of the ball park.’” 

     According to the majority of participants, they alter the way they communicate to illicit a greater response from those they text.  They over-exaggerate, and act in ways they normally wouldn’t to appear smarter, cooler, funnier, etc. The practice of texting appears to be altering the display of individual personality when use is frequent and prolonged.

3.    In what situations is it inappropriate to text?

     Elder David A. Bednar - “Beware of digital displays and data in many forms of computer-mediated interaction that can displace the full range of physical capacity and experience” (19). 

     Vogue – Defined herself as “the poster child of all things wrong with texting.” Halfway through the interview she stopped me so she could answer a text that she had received.  She then said “But, oh no, the technology of texting makes inappropriate behavior progress.  That’s fantastic.”

     Bryce – “Personally, I’m guilty of it, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to text in Church.  Technically it’s not appropriate to text in school, although I do it too.”

     Ryan - “I think when you’re in classrooms and you’re supposed to be learning, and the teacher is looking at you.  Or, I also think it’s not appropriate when you’re at work and doing something that you need to pay attention to.  Where else is it not appropriate to text?  Hmm…Nah, That’s pretty good.”

     Prolonged and frequent use appears to extend the trend of alteration of personality when texting to behavior in the “real world.”  Most clearly, Behavior is affected as the need to live according to text etiquette supersedes the need to live according to common courtesy.  The norms of the “real world” are replaced by the norms of text etiquette.

     Lastly - William Wilson states: “Through the things that people make with their words, hands, and actions, they attempt to create a social world more to their own liking” (225).  While texting is fun, it is so much more than that.  Text messaging is a way of establishing the individuals desired social norms, as if they were the norms of all society already.  These things are what make the world change.  Text messaging has a lot of positive things to offer to the world, not measured in this short study, but is it needed?  Ever so slowly society is evolving, but is the instant communication revolution good or bad?  Appropriately balanced, I think it is a great tool for extremely rapid communication.  Yet in the end, I say draw your own conclusions, but as for me: ttyl