Too much phone texting reduces moral, spiritual goals
The latest communication craze among teens worldwide is SMS text messaging. Although a useful form of technology, texting can be abused or even dangerous.For instance, teenagers and young adults who text too frequently, up to and beyond 300 text messages a day, are risking their health. Apart from developing sore thumbs, heavy texters could be exhibiting evidence of weakness in goals and attitudes that indicate low interest and engagement in reflective thought.
It is now known that people who text very frequently tend to be more at risk of specific hazards. In Nigeria today, millions of phone text messages are sent and the number is growing exponentially with the adoption of more capable cellular cellphones.
At least one pupil or student now uses text messages as primary communications methods between friends. One in 10 of all teens admit to sending more than 50 messages a day, an inescapable fact that the text message has become an integral part of our lives. Whether for gossip or professional communication, text messages have become a regular form of contact between people.
There are issues associated with the activity of text messaging. One of the most widely reported is the problem of people texting while driving. More teens admit to texting while driving at high speed, and fewer admit to having been “extremely distracted” by texting, in some cases leading to close calls or significant accidents.
Even health hazards are starting to appear with texting, with reports of “text thumb” injuries increasing, as well as most people’s posture adopted while texting leading to circulation issues with their forearms.
However, findings presented in San Diego at the 13th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, show there could be 100 different reasons why these associations exist. Researchers surveyed more than 2,200 college psychology class students about their texting frequency. They were ages 18 to 22. Data were collected from 2007 through 2011.
Cell phone texting has become the preferred communication method between teens and friends, according to a 2010 report by the Pew Research Center, 72 percent of all teens surveyed use text messaging. That’s up from 51 percent in 2006.
For the Canadian study, the students noted how many text messages they sent or received (whichever number was higher) on their highest-use day of the month. They reported only non-work-related texts. About 30 percent of the students had a peak rate of more than 200 texts a day. Twelve percent had a peak rate of more than 300 a day.
The researchers then gave them a battery of tests that included: a standard personality test to measure such traits as extroversion and openness to experiences; a questionnaire that measures tendencies to engage in reflection and self-reflection: The students agreed or disagreed with such statements as, “I often love to look at my life in philosophical ways.
There was also a survey that asked students to rate the importance of numerous life goals: Goals included wealth, fame, image, power, achievement, morality, community, family, health, spirituality, and others. The researchers looked to see if texting frequency had an effect on the test results.
They wanted to test the so-called ”shallowing hypothesis,” as described in the Nicholas Carr best seller, The Shallows, and by scientists. It suggests that very brief media social interaction such as texting encourages rapid, relatively shallow thought.
Source
NOTE:: Remember to Subscribe to Email so to get Direct Info to your inbox without Logging to the website
