Community Problem Report

Community Problem Report: Texting Addiction

Samantha Ramirez

University of Texas at El Paso

Abstract

            Mobile phone text messaging often is more affordable than voice messaging in the developing world. Having that said it makes it easier for a person to texting because its more convenient and faster. Some people overuse the luxury and develop addiction-like tendencie that doctors would find in drugs addicts. Symptoms of addiction related to tolerance, withdrawal, displacement of attention to school or work, and the inability to diminish use. Displacement of people was common among a higher percentage of respondents. The number of messages sent, and the perceived skill at using SMS technology were significant predictors of the number of addiction criteria exhibited by respondents. While gender had been shown to be a predictor of overuse tendencies in past studies, no gender differences were found for addiction measures, but males were heavier users of text messaging than females. Another fact produced from this research was that eighteen percent of all accidents are cell phone related.

According to the Washington post twenty-eight percent of all traffic accidents are caused by people texting or using their cell phones.( Halsey, A. 2010, January 13) But even more disturbingly, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that there are more than 100,000 accidents each year related to drowsiness -- resulting in 1,500 fatalities. In light of all these recent texting car related accidents, states are cracking down on laws the try and prevent more from occurring. Texting has become such an impulse that 28 states and D.C. ban all cell phone use by novice drivers and 30 states, D.C. and Guam ban text messaging for all drivers. “Eleven of these laws were enacted in 2010. 26 states, D.C., and Guam have primary enforcement. In the other four, texting bans are secondary”. (GHSA. 2010, June 18).   Although law makers may think that putting a law in place will help the numbers decrease, they do not fully realize that for many people it’s a type of addiction and cannot be stopped.

Just like drugs texting can be as addicting and has even been prove to give the same stimulating affect to the brain. Most teenagers will be honest and forthcoming with the fact that they have an addiction to texting.(Barto, Thomas P. and Wang, Wenli. (2010) It is the urge to glance at your phone every few minutes, and inability to draw your focus away from your phone while doing simple tasks. Studies have shown that the brain lights up and responds when receiving a texting message just as would a drug addict’s brain would respond to getting high.( Hemp, P. 2006) Other studies show that there are many health risks that directly and indirectly affect the person texting and the people around you.

There are two main health issues that surround texting, one being the lack of awareness the surrounding would. (Hemp, P. (2006) A person that is texting can be so focused on texting and not even realize what is going on around them. Having that said twenty states have made it illegal to use a mobile device while driving because of all the cell phone related accidents. This would potentially be a beneficial law, especially for teenagers, who have such a problem with using their mobile devices while behind the wheel. A study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute outlines how dangerous texting and driving truly is. Researchers studied drivers driving their own vehicles for more than six million miles. Texting was not studied in those operating cars, but texting while driving a truck increased the risk of accident by a stunning 23.20%. Dialing a cell phone while driving a car increased risk of an accident by 280%; risk while driving a heavy vehicle increased by 59%.”The researchers concluded that, when texting, one's eyes are off the road for enough time to travel along a road the length of a football field while going 55 miles per hour.” (Poncelet, B. 2010).

Eric F. Dubow, a psychologist from Bowling Green State University conducted a study “to address questions regarding the frequency and compulsivity of adolescents’ texting, its relation to adjustment, and moderators of the relation between compulsivity of texting and adjustment. “ According to Dubow acquired 211 8^th graders to complete a survey that asked questions about how many types they received and send text messages. (Dubow, S. E. 2010). The survey also included questions that dealt with how the subjects felt and reactions to receiving text messages. Dubow concluded that “Students with Higher Levels of Self-Control Will Have Non-Significant Relations between Compulsive Texting and Internalizing Problems; Students with Lower Levels of Self-Control Will Have Significant Positive Relations between Compulsive Texting and Internalizing Problems.” Another result of the survey showed Females reported greater compulsivity of texting than males. (tiDubow, S. E. 2010)

Statistics have shown that an average teenager send around three hundred twenty-two text message a day. That is approximately thirteen texts an hours. (tiLister, K. M. 2007). Which to some people doesn’t sounds like much, yet in reality a child is on the average supposed to spend eight hours in school. Out of those eight hours there are one hundred and four text messages sent. Keep in mind that is just on an average, more than likely a teenager sends more than double that. You may ask yourself how much does a child retain knowledge when they are flooding their brain in hundreds of text messages. Fact of the matter is they are most of the things teenagers hear goes in one ear and comes out of the other ear.

            Teenagers attention spans are not every long and some have a hard time repeating a phrase you said a few minutes back. Imagine putting a cell phone in their hand and letting them text. In a study conducted by Dr. Erlbaum, “concluded that teenagers were more likely to remember who and what a texting message said, which they received two hours ago, versus being able to explain a simple paragraph they just read. It’s rather shocking to actually realize how addiction or into texting teenagers can be. It is apparently that texting is bad for teenagers in more ways than one. The studies done my doctors and psychologist have also proven. It’s safe to conclude and say that texting is an actual addictions and needs to be taken seriously as well as treated. Without treatment texting can lead to many unfortunate and unnecessary sonorous.

           

Top of Form

Barto, Thomas P. and Wang, Wenli. (2010). “Deterring adolescent dependency on text messaging: a conceptual model and framework for behavior control" (2010). AMCIS 2010 Proceedings. Paper 563. http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2010/563

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GHSA. (2010, June 18). In Cell phone and texting laws. Retrieved November 1, 2010, from http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html

Halsey, A. (2010, January 13). 28 percent of accidents involve talking, texting on cell phones. Washtington Post, pp. A1, A2. Retrieved November 1, 2010

Hemp, P. (2006). Death by information overload. (Doctoral dissertation, www.hbr.org. 2006). Retrieved October 6, 2010, from http://tenfor2010.com/Global/pdfs/Contributors'%20Content/Death%20by%20Information%20Overload.pdf

Kershaw, T., & Cole-Lewis, H. (2010, March 30). Text messaging as a tool for behavior change in disease Prevention and Management. Oxford Journal. Retrieved October 6, 2010, from http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/03/30/epirev.mxq004.abstract

tiLister, K. M. (2007). Compulsive text messaging: do youth need to kick the habit? (Doctoral dissertation, Ohio Links, AL. . 2007). Retrieved October 6, 2010, from http://etd.ohiolink.edu/send-pdf.cgi/Lister%20Kelly%20M.pdf?bgsu1276915835

Poncelet, B. (2010). Texting and Driving – A Deadly Combination. About.com.