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Jenifer Otero- Herrera

Professor Fleggas

2021SP.ENG.111.0036

20 April 2021

The Positive and Negative Effects of Texting

There is argument that texting can be a constructive influence in people’s lives, both in terms of

mental and physical wellbeing, if done correctly. Texting, when handled correctly , will

strengthen intimate relationships, assist individuals in dealing with stressful experiences, and

cross intergenerational differences, according to experts. While texting comes with many

positive effects like creating faster reaction times which can help save a life, but it can also

come with various negative effects as well. Such as causing problems with social boundaries,

bullying, worsen our impatience and for instant gratification as well as be impacting the teen

brain development and biggest negative of all is car accidents from texting and driving

especially from younger adults.

While I consider texting to be much more of a negative rather than a positive, there are many

studies that show that those who frequently text will respond faster to visual and auditory

stimuli rather than those who do not. A Consultant neurologist at Shalby Hospital, Dr Arvind

Sharma, as said that when comparing communication on the phone, texting necessitates more

mental processing. This means that frequently texting improves one’s reaction time to react

quicker during certain situations. The improvement on one’s reaction time is a significant thing

because when in certain situations, such as driving or maybe even just walking on the street,

having quick reaction could save one’s life. For instance, when driving it is important to be alert
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of anything that can come at you. There can be a car that comes out of nowhere and is very

close to hitting you but because of that improved reaction, you were able quickly move out of

the way, so the unexpected car does not hit you. As stated before, while texting may have some

positives, texting comes with various negative effects.

“When a person gets a text, his brain goes through several processes” said Dr Gopal Bhatiya of

Narayan Multispeciality Hospital. Dr Gopal further explains the audio-visual reaction time by

stating that the brains cognitive performance such as memory, coherence and response speed

was improved by using a technique that required texting information to a person when

experimenting. Dr Rajest from the Gujarat Institute of psychological science believes that

Crossword puzzles are similar to texting. The circuits in our brain are activated as we solve

problems, and we exercise our brain by paying constant attention. While there are many

doctors that see the positives of texting, they are still aware of the excessive use of texting can

cause many negative effects on both psychological and neurological efficiencies. Texting

excessively has been proven that it causes headaches, eye pain, as well as

other issues. This research proves on how even when there is a positive effect of texting, there

will always be a negative.

Archana Srinivas, Megan white and Hatim A. Omar, part of the Division of Adolescent Medicine,

Department of Pediatrics and University of Kentucky, argue that while any form of interruption

can endanger a driver, the most troubling distracting behavior cited is texting while driving

since it includes all three types of distraction. “According to the National highway traffic safety

administration (NHTSA), 18% of fatalities in distraction related cases were related to cellular

phone use.” (NHTSA 328). The national highway traffic safety administration report that the age
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group of people involved in these accidents caused by the distraction while driving has been

those under age 20. In the case of texting there are many negatives that come with it like I have

said before.

Texting and driving have always been a bigger issue ever since handheld cell phones around the

2000’s and continue to still be an issue today. There are currently twelve states that have made it

illegal to chat on a mobile phone while commuting. More drivers are deliberately seeking hands-

free alternatives as a result of this measure. The national highway traffic administration also

states, “unsurprisingly, drivers aged 18-24 were the most likely offenders including, 45% in

texting restricted states, and 48% in unrestricted states.” (NHTSA 329) meaning that

unfortunately restricting the use of text messaging while driving is not very effective for any age

group, especially those that are young adults.

Solomon Ali Dansieh argues that while there are positives in texting, texting can also possibly

effects students on their writing skills. Although text messaging come in handy for many

situations, Dansieh states that “The SMS text messaging function could heighten the tendency

among students to adopt non-standard uses and contracted forms of English words in their

classwork, examinations and research reports especially in an academic environment where

English is the L2 of most students.” (Dansieh 222). What he means by that statement is that as

we all know texting can become very addictive, so can using the texting language which can

negatively impact the way we write in real life such as in schoolwork and essays. Teachers,

parents and even students worry that students around the world who obtain a smart phone will

lose their writing skills and will become altered by text messaging writing. About 51% of

students considered grammar to be extremely complicated, while 36% struggled with lexis and

form. It was reported that the issue was very deep, with 98 percent of students interviewed
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admitting that they wanted guidance to develop their general communication skills. Texting

becomes more of a negative thing every single day when results like these show up in the lack of

simple writing skills.

While texting is not fully a negative or positive thing, there are more negatives rather than

positives when it comes to that specific issue. Although studying also discover that Texting can

have a positive impact on literacy, according to a report. Since teenagers read and write

messages so much, it's possible that it'll improve their reading abilities because they're doing it so

frequently. Texting also has a detrimental impact on cognitive skills and conversation. We

cannot change the way texting is being used no matter how much restriction there is and there

will always be pros and cons to situations like this but as technology advances day after day,

there will be more advantages and disadvantages to this question on whether texting is a boon or

a curse.
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Works-Cited

Chakraborty, R. (2014, Jul 13). Smart, smarter. a result of texting on smart phone: Mobile phone
texting has positive effect on audio-visual reaction time, claim medical
experts. DNA.SundayRetrieved from https://login.proxy189.nclive.org/login?
url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/smart-smarter-result-texting-on-
phone/docview/1544564826/se-2?accountid=15152

Dansieh, S. A. “[PDF] SMS Texting and Its Potential Impacts on Students' Written
Communication Skills: Semantic Scholar.” Undefined, 1 Jan. 1970,
www.semanticscholar.org/paper/SMS-Texting-and-Its-Potential-Impacts-on-Students%27-
Dansieh/2b50b8f4305c87ca96cb8808f4bba7446c169d3c?p2df.

Srinivas, Archana, et al. “Teens Texting and Consequences: A Brief Review.” UKnowledge,

uknowledge.uky.edu/pediatrics_facpub/94/?utm_source=uknowledge.uky.edu
%2Fpediatrics_facpub%2F94&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages.