Text messaging, chatting, and blogging are increasingly becoming the primary communication tools for a significant portion of young people in the United States. As they speak less, their verbal communication skills are diminishing, leading to misunderstandings and frustrations among those around them.
In simple terms, American youth are using “finger language” more than “tongue language” as they text and type on mobile phones and computers, while expressing their thoughts verbally less.
Texting to the Point of Forgetting to Speak
For 18-year-old Alexandra Smith, her Motorola Razr is an inseparable companion as she constantly texts. On average, Alexandra sends over 1,000 SMS messages each month, which is more than 30 messages a day. More accurately, she doesn’t send texts in the usual way; she chats online. She “speaks” through SMS to the extent that her parents have to plead with her to pick up the phone and talk when communicating with them instead of just texting.
Alexandra’s case is not unique among American youth today. Some young people send 20-30 texts a day. Erica Beal, another example of digital addiction, has had her mobile phone earbuds attached to her since she was 12. By 15, she switched to SMS, and at 17, she moved to blogging on MySpace. Now at 18, Erica frequently accesses her Facebook blog and sends about 10-15 messages daily.
The majority of students have mobile phones, but they still prefer using SMS for communication instead of making regular phone calls. This trend is supported by mobile phone companies that release devices with larger keyboards, making it easier to text and send longer messages.
The digital language among youth also extends to social networking communities like MySpace and Facebook, as well as blogging websites. Ideas are shared, exchanged, and debated online instead of through spoken words.
USA Today humorously notes that “their mouths are wide open, but laptops and mobile phones are also wide open, and ideas emerge from there. Even the stars admired by young people must learn to communicate through thumb language.” Teen actress Lindsay Lohan has stated that she has to respond to thousands of SMS messages sent by fans.
Brett Dicker admits that since his son started high school, they have only spoken to each other about 10 times a year. Instead, his son prefers to… chat with his parents through instant messaging (IM).
The Risk of Losing Verbal Communication Skills
The phenomenon of “talking with fingers” has become so serious that there are books warning about and guiding how to communicate verbally, such as “Communicating at Work: How to Speak So Others Will Listen” by Sonya Hamlin. The author decided to write this book after teaching at a highly regarded high school in California. She was surprised to find many students responding with nonsensical, curt answers that provided no information at all. Upon further investigation, she discovered that these students lacked good listening skills because they were only accustomed to reading messages on mobile phones or computers and rarely spoke directly to each other.
A 2005 survey by the nonprofit organization Achieve revealed that 34% of employers were dissatisfied with the verbal communication skills of high school graduates. Additionally, 45% of high school and college graduates admitted they lacked confidence in their public speaking abilities.
Meanwhile, according to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the trend of non-verbal communication is alarmingly increasing. Among students who have mobile phones and go online daily, 53% regularly communicate with friends through SMS, and 61% through IM.
This trend is generating enormous profits for mobile service providers. In 2004, 22% of mobile phone users in the U.S. utilized SMS. By 2005, this percentage rose to 36%, with a total of 500 billion messages sent. It is projected that by 2010, this number will reach 2.3 trillion messages.
However, some sociologists argue that there is nothing to worry about. At some point, such as when falling in love, young people will revert to traditional verbal communication methods, and everything will return to normal because no one can remain silent for their entire life.
TUONG NGHI
