Teenagers use text mes saging more than any other mode of communication, so it may be hard to tell. It asked them if they skipped their chores because they were texting, if they got annoyed by someone bothering them while they were texting, and if they lost sleep because of texting or lied about how much they text. A 2012 Pew study found that 75% of teens have a mobile phone, and 63% say they text every day.
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“It would be helpful for parents to look for signs of whether texting seems stressful for their teens, particularly if they have difficulty cutting back their texting or seem anxious when they are unable to text”, Lister-Landman said.
Compulsive texters or not, girls academically outperformed boys overall in the study. They found that 47 students did not text, and were not part of the final analysis. An experiment with college students showed that students who abstained from texting during a lecture retained more information and scored higher on a quiz.
The New York Times has a hot scoop: Teens text.
Like an angry old man on a porch, the Times article goes on to rail against the evils of social media in general, tying excessive use of Facebook to sleep problems and lower grades.
The new study underscores the correlation between compulsive texting and problems in school but does not explain whether texting is a direct cause of poorer school performance or whether another problem like depression or substance abuse is driving both behaviors.
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What’s more, texts along those lines could also create more stress or anxiety, which could indirectly hurt students’ performance in school.
