For America’s teens, cell phones have become a vital social tool and texting the preferred mode of communication, according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project.
The report finds that 75 percent of teens between the ages of 12 and 17 now have cell phones, up from 45 percent in 2004. And the number who say they text-message daily has shot up to 54 percent from 38 percent in just the past 18 months.
“There’s now an expectation that teens will contact each other via text, and they expect a kind of constant, frequent response,” says the Pew Center’s Amanda Lenhart, one of the study’s authors.
The survey, which was conducted with scholars from the University of Michigan, finds the typical American teen sends 50 texts a day, and a sizable number send double that or more. Some teens text their parents, though most youngsters say they prefer to speak with them by phone.
It is not a matter of “will social skills suffer,” it is “how badly are social skills already suffering?”
This generation of Teenagers that are now freshman or so level collegians has an absolutely zero level of conflict resolution skills and face to face negotiating skills. If you don’t believe me, ask ANY residence hall director in the country these days. Helicopter parents are rampant, students in the same room having a fight via text messaging instead of actually talking things out. I’ve seen all this, and it is horrendous.