Carlton Witmore
Jenifer Chicosky
ENG-111 Expository Writing
15 July 9, 2013
Trouble with Teens
People have always relied on a variety of forms of communication to develop social skills through interaction with one another. The history of interpersonal communication methods includes: face-to-face, written messages, smoke signals, telegraph, Morse code, sign language, radio, telephone, e-mail, and most recently, cell phones. Since the first cell phone was made available, it too has seen improvements. Today, talk-only cell phones are a thing of the past. Naturally, text messaging has become increasingly prevalent among teenagers wishing to stay in perpetual contact with their friends.
With the move toward increasingly high-tech means of communication, some argue that certain types of communication may have negative social implications. In particular, some believe that contemporary media that eliminates physical human interaction—such as e-mail, Internet chatting, or short message service (SMS) texting—which can adversely affect social development. Currently, heavy reliance on text messaging is causing the most concern. Someone texting while driving is not only doing so at the most inappropriate time but also is a threat to other motorists. A more thorough understanding of this argument requires research and analysis by notable scholars to shed light on the issues surrounding text-based communication and social development.
One issue drawing increasing attention is the effect on social development of SMS texting as a sole mode of communication. Many researches contend that adolescents in particular are at the greatest risk of experiencing social development issues as a result of excessive SMS texting-based communication. This risk is thought to be amplified by the fact that adolescents are considered to be the greatest users of SMS text communication. Jeffery