The Impact of Texting on Social Interaction Chelsea Lee San Jos - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Impact of Texting on Social Interaction

Chelsea Lee San José State University

Introduction

 Despite the ease of texting, it can interfere

with the social skills needed to build relationships in the personal and corporate world.

 “Teens, Cell Phones, and Texting: Text

Messaging Becomes Centerpiece Communication” (Lenhart, 2010).

 “Talk to Text: Changing Communication

Patterns” (Pinchot, Douglas, Paullet, & Rota, 2011).

Introduction

 Four Hypotheses

 More comfortable texting than voicemail  Include minimal information  Higher preference for texting than

voicemail

 Texting is used to avoid making

uncomfortable phone calls

Method

 Convenience sample of 20 undergraduate

college students

 Participants read a short vignette  Task: Deliver message of disinterest

 Two counterbalanced conditions across

participants:

• Text
• Voicemail

Method

 Given questionnaire about:

 Comfort level after each condition  Amount of information included  Preference  Avoidance  Gender  Age

Results: Comfort Level

Com fort Level of Text vs. Voicem ail

2.15 4.2 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 1 2 Form of Com m unication

Text Voicemail

Very Comfortable Very Uncomfortable

Results: Amount of Information

Am ount of I nform ation Given over Text versus Voicem ail

0.35 0.3 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3 0.31 0.32 0.33 0.34 0.35 0.36 1 2 Form of Com m unication

Text Voicemail

Results: Preference

Preference am ong Men versus W om en

56% 10% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 1 2 Gender

Men Women

Text Voicemail

14 6

Results: Avoidance

Avoidance of Men versus W omen

44% 20% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% 1 2 Gender

Men Women

Yes No

13 6

Limitations

 Small Sample Size  Demand Characteristics  Reactivity  The Manipulation

Conclusions

 These findings add to the growing

research on the effects of texting on human behavior

 Further research is needed to prevent the

younger generations from the addiction to texting and its harmful effects on social interaction

References

Lenhart, A. (2010). Teens, cell phones, and texting: Text messaging becomes centerpiece

• communication. Pew Internet and American Life
• Project. Retrieved from www.pewresearch.org

Pinchot, J.L., Douglas, D., Paullet, K.L., & Rota, D.R. (2011). Talk to text: Changing communication patterns. Conference for Information Systems Applied Research, 4, 1-9.

Questions? Thank you!