How Has Texting Affected Teenagers

How has texting affected teen literacy? This is one question asked by many, and not always answered. After doing much research, I have come up with an answer to this question. There are pros as well as cons to texting when it comes to teens. The pros of texting are that texting allows teens to communicate with each other more often. Another pro is that they have the capability to call a parent when in a situation where alcohol or drugs are involved. While texting can have some pros, it also comes with it’s own set of cons.
One con is that texting is leading to anxiety, stress, distraction in school, and sleep deprivation. All of this added together can cause teens to have falling grades in school. Another, con is that texting can distract teens while they are driving. Texting and driving has become one of the most common causes of car accidents. One common thing you can see in schools is texting in class. One other thing you will see is cheating during tests. Some schools have banned cellphones during tests but this has not helped at all.
These rules only affect the teens that are willing to break rules. The amount of teens who own a cell phone in the world is enormous. In 2011, 77% of the teenage population owned a cell phone, which is very similar to the 75% presented in 2009. Due to the unlimited texting plans presented by various mobile carriers texting has increased substantially in popularity. According to the Nielson Company, American Teenagers sent and received and average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008.

This totals to about 80 messages a day. In 2010, this amount of 2,272 text messages in the fourth quarter of 2008, grew to an amount of 6. 1 trillion text messages in 2010. This goes to show how much texting has grown in popularity and is a growing issue that effects teens everywhere. As texting becomes more popular, more and more teens begin to have falling grades in school and also putting themselves in danger while driving.
If parents started to be more watchful of how much their children text, they could help them keep control of their texting. Works Cited Baker,Lisa. “Cell Phones and Their Positive Effects on Youth” eHow 15. April. 2012 Starovoit,Veronica. “How Does Text Messaging Affect the Ability to Write & Speak in English? ” eHow 16. April. 2012 Lenhart,Amanda. “Overall cell ownership steady since 2009” PewInternet 19. Mar. 2012 Hafner,Katie. “Texting May Be Taking a Toll on Teenagers” The New York Times 25. May. 2009