nothing to lol about: digital natives and the effects of texting
DESCRIPTION
The following is a student presentation from the Summer 2012 "Media Psychology and Influence" course taught as part of the SPICE Study Abroad program at Universitat Erfurt. In this course, students were asked to propose a theoretically- and practically-relevant research model about one facet of media psychology and communication. Read more about SPICE: http://www.uni-erfurt.de/kommunikationswissenschaft/studium/bachelor-kommunikationswissenschaft/spice/ABSTRACT: Digital technology has become a common channel for communication. This paper proposes the need to further study the long-term effects of digital technology on digital natives. Research suggests that digital technology has a direct effect on digital natives’ nonverbal communication skill. Two theories that explain the proposed direct effect between digital natives and poor nonverbal skills are the displacement hypothesis and brain development in digital natives. We propose two factors which explain why digital natives are showing a lack of nonverbal capabilities: the usage of text messaging and personality type could influence digital natives’ nonverbal communication skills.TRANSCRIPT
By:Christine Devlin (WVU)
Enya Messersmith (WVU)
Caitlin Rose (Texas)
Meredith Donaldson (OU)
NOTHING TO LOL ABOUT: DIGITAL NATIVES AND
THE EFFECTS OF TEXTING
Cellphones are the primary source of communication especially among digital natives
Cellphones limit the amount of nonverbal communication
Diminishing nonverbal skillsDiffi culty maintaining personal and
professional relationships
WHY STUDY DIGITAL NATIVES AND THE EFFECTS OF TEXTING?
Nonverbal skills are affected by more than just textingPersonalityUsage
IT’S NOT THAT SIMPLE
Who are digital natives? People who are born into the digital world (Prensky,
2011). native speakers
Nonverbal Communication The various ways people communicate without
language i.e. eye behavior, touch, body movement, facial expressions.
Nonverbal communication is a learned skill (Riggio, 2006).
DIGITAL NATIVES & NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
Why are digital natives showing a lack of nonverbal skills?
2 theories
1. Displacement hypothesis
2. Brain Development
DIMINISHED NONVERBAL ABILITIES
Definition Schramm studied children and television More time spent w? activity A = less time spent w/
activity B
Displacing FtF communication w/ digital comm. Nonverbal communication is a skill
Practice=perfect
DISPLACEMENT HYPOTHESIS
Mullen neural pathways necessary in the development of
interpersonal skills = unstimulated and underdeveloped
Small & Vorgan: Ibrain digital technology is rewiring our brain and altering how we
behave Altered behavior- learning differently Focus on technological skills NOT fundamental social skills
Iacoboni: Mirror neurons Neural network Nonverbal cues Developed w/ FtF experience
DEVELOPMENT
H1: Digital natives have deficient nonverbal communication skills.
What’s the problem?Not every digital native lacks nonverbal communication. Why are some digital natives able to pick up on nonverbal cues better than others?
PersonalityAccess to mobile phone usage
HYPOTHESIS
Personality predicts nonverbal abilityExtroversion
Enjoy human interactionTalkative, enthusiastic, assertive, outgoing
Introversionkeep to themselves, less outspoken
MODERATING EFFECT OF PERSONALITY
Extroverts are better communicatorsExtroverts display less communication
apprehensionCommunication Apprehension (CA)
Defined (Introverts)“Broadly based anxiety related to oral communication” (McCroskey, 1970)
Level of fear associated with real or anticipated communication with another person
Leads to avoidance behaviors, social isolation
EXTROVERTS
Extroverts tend to have more friendsExtroverts spend more time in face-to-face communication
Therefore extroverts practice nonverbal skills more often than introverts
EXTROVERTS VS INTROVERTS AND THEIR BEHAVIORS
H2: Digital natives who are more extroverted have better nonverbal communication skills.
People who have extroverted personalities are likely to have more friends which allows them more opportunity to practice their nonverbal communication skills.
HYPOTHESIS
The amount of texts influence NV communication
Digital Natives who text more frequently lose time that could be spent on face to face communication
USAGE OF TEXTING
Defined Cue Lean
Texts lack nonverbal signalsHistory
Designed for task, used as social One does not need NV for task based communication (it
actually gets in the way) however, texting is now used as a social communication
“I was a young engineer working on new communications technologies. We thought texting was a clever way for a company's staff to send simple messages to one another. I'd never have predicted that it would spread into the consumer world and become what it is today. At the time it didn't seem like a big deal” (Silver, 2011).
SMS
Digital Natives prefer texting The number of texts being sent is on the rise, especially
among teenagers age 13 to 17. According to Nielsen, the average teenager now sends 3,339 texts per month. (Parr, 2010)
"I think that's pretty bad because I think when these kids grow up and it's time to form their permanent relationships, they're not going have any idea how to communicate with another person. No idea. They're going be texting their spouses from diff erent rooms," said a worried Virginia mom
Cost effi cient and more convenient
MORE TEXTING LESS FACE TO FACE
H3: Digital Natives who text more will have decreased ability for NV skills
Even Psychiatrist Dr. Lise Van Susteren agrees that texting is an emotionless thing. (The Money Times, 2012)
The more a digital native texts predicts a decrease in the amount of face to face communication which will then decrease the suffi ciency of their NV skills
HYPOTHESIS
Use of text messaging is a function of how accessible it is
Different phone plans offer varying degrees of accessibility
Unlimited plans see more texting
UNLIMITED TEXT MESSAGING PLAN
H4: Digital natives with an unlimited text messaging plan will send more text messages .
HYPOTHESIS
SUMMARY
THEORETICAL MODEL