Texting, although one of the newer forms of computer-mediated communication, has become very popular, especially among teens. This research, using self-report measures, explored college students’ perceptions of texting, including texting’s leading to relationship conflict and interfering with classes, as well as how attitudes towards texting were related to masculinity, femininity, and gender-linked (traditional)/gender-transcendent (nontraditional) attitudes. Our participants (n = 183) more frequently used emoticons than abbreviations, especially vulgar abbreviations. Over 70% reported at least minimal texting interference with classes/college preparation, and over 60% indicated that their own or their significant other’s texting contributed to relationship conflict. The only significant male–female difference was in sexually explicit messages received, but positive associations were found between more traditional gendered attitudes and texting interfering with studying/school, with relationship conflict, and, for men only, “sexting” and using vulgar abbreviations. Other findings included gender transcendence being negatively associated with the reported number of messages sent as well as being bothered by texting; femininity also predicted frequency of emoticon use. Our research suggests that individual differences in texting may be related to variables associated with gendered self-perceptions and traditional gender roles.
One of the more recent developments in computer-mediated communication (CMC) is text messaging. According to Ling and colleagues (Ling, Bertel, & Sundsøy, 2011), texting is particularly popular with teens and emerging adults. Using a dataset of 394 million messages sent by Norwegian users ranging in age from 10 to 90, Ling et al.(2011) found that nineteen-year-olds sent 80 times the number of texts that would be expected if individuals of all ages texted equally. Moreover, examining a subset of the data, 64.8 million texts sent to same-age individuals, Ling and colleagues concluded that same-age texting peaked at age 19 and then decreased with age every year from ages 19 to 25.
Similarly, teens in the U.S. reported a high volume of text messaging. According to the Pew Internet Project, based on telephone surveys of 800 nationally representative teens and one of their parents, 54% of 12- to 17-year-olds surveyed in 2009 indicated that they texted daily, up from 38% in 2008 (Lenhart, Ling, Campbell, & Purcell, 2010). Of those teens who texted, half reported sending at least 50 messages a day, and almost a third sent over 100 texts per day, equivalent to over 3000 text messages per month. From 2009 to 2011, the median number of text messages increased from 50 to 60 (Lenhart, 2012).
Since text messaging has quickly become an important part of the daily lives of many teenagers, parents as well as scholars have become concerned about possible effects. Areas of interest have included how cell phone use and texting might impact reading proficiency (Hofferth & Moon, 2012), formal and informal writing (Rosen, Chang, Erwin, Carrier, & Cheever, 2010), and sedentary behaviors and obesity (Leatherdale, 2010). The relation of college students’ attachment styles to texting and sexting, sending text messages with sexually explicit material, has also been considered (Drouin & Landgraff, 2012).
