Thesis: Text messaging negatively affects the ability of college-aged teenagers to write a formal essay by encouraging the use of abbreviated or symbolic variations of the English language in communication.
With the development in technology, among the main trends has been text messaging. This service has become available to users of all ages and has become part of what people are doing on a daily basis. All over, in restaurants, public vehicles, and even on the streets, individuals have their phones on their hands and texting. The trend has become common with the young people, including teenagers (Plester, Wood & Joshi, 2009; Thomas & Orthober, 2011). This is a group of users that is almost obsessed with cell phones, using them for among other reasons to connect with their friends through text messages (Tulane & Beckert, 2013; Verheijen, 2013).While some school policies prohibit bringing cell phones to school, teenagers always find a way around the policy and will even use them when out of school (Wood, et al, 2011). Given this reality, it is necessary that research is carried out on the impact this behavior has on teen literacy.
Therefore, this is an important topic for research, which would provide findings on how teen literacy can be affected by text messaging, whether negatively or positively. The main focus of the study is finding out whether teen literacy is improving or declining due to the increase in text messaging. This is an important topic of research given that this is a critical issue impacting on the society, and the effects are found to be negative, it is a problem that will continue to negatively impact on future generations. If the impact is found to be positive, then the teenagers can be taught about the positive use of technology to harness the capabilities. The findings from such a study will inform policy making in relation to control of use of cell phones by students.
Research question: how has the growth in text messaging impacted on teen literacy, in general, and specifically their language and writing skills?
References
Plester, B., Wood, C., & Joshi, P. (2009). Exploring the relationship between children's knowledge of text message abbreviations and school literacy outcomes. British Journal Of Developmental Psychology, 27(1), 145-161.
Thomas, K., & Orthober, C. (2011). USING TEXT-MESSAGING IN THE SECONDARY CLASSROOM. American Secondary Education, 39(2), 55-76.
Tulane, S., & Beckert, T. E. (2013). Perceptions of Texting: A Comparison of Female High School and College Students. North American Journal Of Psychology, 15(2), 395-404
Verheijen, L. (2013). The Effects of Text Messaging and Instant Messaging on Literacy. English Studies, 94(5): 582-602.
Wood, C., Meachem, S., Bowyer, S., Jackson, E., Tarczynski-Bowles, M. L., & Plester, B. (2011). A longitudinal study of children's text messaging and literacy development. British Journal Of Psychology, 102(3), 431-442
