SMART PHONES: AFFECTING ADOLESCENT’S SOCIAL

SKILLS

By: Spencer Mahoney

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The ability to communicate and the level of social skills a person has are based upon their relationships and are learned over the course of their childhood, adolescence, and into their adulthood. The different relationships we have growing up, from our family, to our teachers and classmates, to our friends, shape the way we are able to communicate and interact with society as an adult. Adolescence is a time when the individual starts learning as much about the world outside of the classroom as they do inside, begin forming opinions, and begin building the person that they will eventually become. The way adolescents have been communicating with one another has certainly changed over generations. The Silent Generation

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grew up communicating face to face. The Baby Boomer adolescents would talk on the phone for hours at night on a landline. Generation Y grew up with AOL Instant Messenger, and cell phones were just beginning to become popular. (Hammill, 2005, p.1) Today’s generation has a dozen ways of communicating with their friends, and they can all be accessed through their smart phone. “In a new survey by the Pew Internet Research Center, U.S. teenagers are talking on landlines and cell phone less, using more smartphones, and are averaging 60 texts a day--up from 50 in 2009” (Kerr, 2012, p.1). The more technology has grown, the smaller face-to-face communication has become, which has had an overall negative affect on

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adolescent’s social skills. (Luden, 2010, p. 1) The smartphone has had a significant impact through its Facebook and text messaging capabilities.

Facebook has completely changed the way adolescent’s interact with, and keep in touch with their friends. (Jackson, 2012, p.1) A person is able to see what

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one of their Facebook friends has been doing in the past year that they haven’t seen them, with pictures and conversations between others, without actually reconnecting with them. No longer does one need to wait until Monday morning homeroom to hear what one of their friends did this weekend. The concept could seem like a good idea, but it takes away from the need for face-to-face communication. Facebook can also be related to problems with one’s self-esteem. A person’s Facebook is supposed to be like an online version of their life, but in reality, no one has as many “friends” in real life as they do on Facebook. Having a lot of Facebook friends “may increase your self-esteem due to more social support

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received, but interactions may be more superficial” (Jackson, 2011, p.1). It may seem like you are popular on Facebook, but this does not mean you are popular in real life. Facebook only shows what you choose to put there, sometimes portraying what you want your life to look like rather then the real thing. This is just like text messaging, in that you are able to control the communication while hiding behind a screen.

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Texting is a relatively new form of communication, and it has taken the world by storm. Texting has taken away the need to actually use your voice when communicating

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with friends, and has given users the power to completely hide behind their screen. “Today, many are those who consider their mobile phones first as text messaging devices, and secondly as voice calling devices" (Dansieh, 2011, p.4). In the case of an argument, texting gives you time to stop and plan out what you are going to say. This is probably better in regards to the argument, but it takes away from your ability to think on your feet when involved in verbal conflict. Quick thinking is a good tool to have when working in a business environment later in life, and you are not always going to have that extra time to perfect what you will say to your boss. Katherine Bindley from the Huffington Post says: "We all know

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the story of kids breaking up with each other through text message. When you have to fire someone or give them bad news, it's uncomfortable. In face-to-face conversation, you've got to think on your feet. ... You've got to respond right away" (as quoted in Bindley, 2011, p.1). One may think there is no practice for thinking on your feet, but when you never are forced to think quickly in an uncomfortable environment, it may be impossible when you are finally faced with it. Nini Halkett, a teacher at a Los Angeles high school describes what she has been seeing, "They can get up the courage to ask you for [a deadline] extension on the computer," she says. "But they won't come and speak to you face-to-face about it. And that worries me, in terms of

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their ability — particularly once they get out in the workplace — to interact with people" (as quoted in Ludden, 2010, p.1). The text message has also taken away the tone and sarcasm out of a person’s voice. When saying something out loud, certain stresses of a word or sentence would demonstrate to the listener that you are either being sarcastic, or implying something else. This is nearly impossible to recreate in a text message, and messages are often misinterpreted.

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With this new form of communication has come a new language. Texting is a slang version of e-mail. All text messages are sent with a maximum number of 160 characters, “Not only do text messaging and Twitter have character limitations, so

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do other forms of new media, such as IM (instant messaging) and Internet chat rooms. Thus, based on the need to get a point over quickly, there developed the need to use as few words and letters as possible to get one's point across (Dixon, 2011, p.2). It has now become more then a way to get the point across quickly, but has become socially acceptable to misspell words on purpose. Abbreviations and acronyms have made their way out of the smart phone an into every day vocabulary. Terms like “Yolo”, “OMG”, “LOL”, etc. have become so popular in texting that people will actually say them out loud. Not only is texting affecting adolescent’s spelling, but it is affecting their vocabulary and the way they speak.

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Why have Facebook, text messaging, and smartphones affected social skills? The answer involves the way humans are able to communicate with one another without actually seeing or hearing each other at all, from one screen to another screen. Going out to a restaurant, you are bound to see at least one couple sitting at the table each looking down at their phones rather than engaging in conversation with one another. This goes with the idea that Facebook could create self-esteem issues. If a person is going out to a fancy dinner, posting statuses and pictures, and then not actually enjoying the company they are with, it is as if they care more about what it looks like they are doing on Facebook then what they actually are doing in

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that moment. The same holds true with a situation in which you are close to strangers, whether in a train car, or an elevator. Before smart phones, these people would probably spark up a conversation rather than all standing awkwardly, staring into space. Now when someone steps into an elevator, the first thing they do is turn to their phone to avoid actual communication, and engage in virtual communication. In terms of communication, this is a step in the wrong direction. In a time period when it is so easy to “have your voice be heard”, your actual voice is really never being heard.

WORKS CITED B. Dixon Jr., J. (2011). Texting, Tweeting, and

Other Internet Abbreviations. Judges' Journal, 50(4), 30-33.

Bindley, K. (2011, Dec 10). When children text all day, what happens to their social skills?. . Retrieved from http:// www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/children-texting- technology-social-skills_n_1137570.html

Dansieh, S. (2011). SMS Texting and Its Potential Impacts on Students' Written Communication Skills. International Journal Of English Linguistics, 1(2), 222-229. doi:10.5539/ ijel.v1n2p222

Hammill, G. (2005, July 10). Mixing and Managing Four Generations. Fdu magazine online. Retrieved from http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/ generations.htm

WORKS CITED Jackson, N. (2011, May 31). The Facebook Effect on Relationships.

Mashable. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2011/05/31/ facebook-relationships/

Kerr, D. (2012, March 19). Teens prefer texting over phone calls, e- mail. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com 8301-1023_3-57400439-93/teens-prefer-texting-over-phone- calls-e-mail/

Ludden, J. (2010, April 20). Teen texting soars; will social skills suffer? National public radio. Retrieved from http://

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1261 17811

Van Der Heide, B., D'Angelo, J. D., & Schumaker, E. M. (2012). The Effects of Verbal Versus Photographic Self- Presentation on Impression Formation in Facebook. Journal Of Communication, 62(1), 98-116. doi:10.1111/j.

1460-2466.2011.01617.x

PHOTOS Facebook Logo:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonbruner/2011/07/20/is-facebook-swallowing-up-the-internets-data/

Texting iPhone:

http://handsintheworld.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/texting_iphone.png

LOL Blocks: http://img.ehowcdn.com/article-new/ds-photo/getty/article/184/157/87776925_XS.jpg