ORANGE JOURNALISM: A juicy JR134 class project

“I text more than I talk, honestly,” said a 19-year-old biology major who declined to provide her name. She said she sends or receives about 150 text messages a day.

Using text messages at that level of frequency has become a noticeable trend among many young people. Anywhere you find young people, you can find several of them on their cell phones giving their thumbs vigorous workouts.

“It’s a lot quicker (than phone calls) if you don’t want to have a long formal conversation,” said Deanna Dyas, a 24-year old nursing major. Her text message total for a day can reach up to 100, she said.

“My schedule is so busy that I just can’t talk on the phone,” said Ali Rahnoma, a 24-year-old sociology major. “I just text message whenever I’m in the middle of something. It cuts down the time of getting caught up in a conversation.”

“It’s more private,” said Robin Mills, a 27-year-old nursing major. “I can do it in public and not let the people around me know what I’m saying.”

“I can get sports scores through text messages,” said Paul Zambrano, a 22-year-old nursing major. “If I can’t watch the game, I’ll get updated whenever someone scores.”

While everybody who uses text messages can find certain advantages in the technology, one of the most prevalent for students is being able to communicate with others even when busy.

“The best advantage is you can do it in class,” said Darius Falahkhir, a 21-year-old nursing major. “It might be disrespectful to the instructor, but nobody really cares.”

“I’m sure (teachers) don’t like people instant messaging and text messaging in class, but most of the time they don’t notice,” said Kyle Wilson, a 20-year-old computer science major.

“I very rarely use it in class,” Mills said. “I think it’s disrespectful to the teacher ... I try not to do it.”

Robert Simpkins, an anthropology professor, had no complaints about text messaging in his classes.

“I don’t consider it a problem,” Simpkins said. “It’s usually just at the beginning of class.”

On the other hand, Mitch Berman, an English professor and the Director of the Center for Literary Arts, said text messaging in classes is not to be tolerated.

“Anywhere that crops up in a classroom, it’s a significant problem,” Berman said.

Berman also coupled computers with text messaging in class as part of the problem.

“I’m not dumb, so I don’t let anyone use cell phones or computers in my classes. I don’t want people on porn sites, I don’t want them on eBay, I don’t want them sending (instant messages), so they are not allowed to flip open a cell phone, and they are ordered out of the classroom immediately if they try to pull a cell phone out of their pocket.”

Not only did Berman have a problem with text messaging in class, he had a problem with the limitations of the technology itself.

“Most of (my business) requires full sentences and paragraphs, and it’s nice to have a keyboard. Text messaging is an awkward, kludgey technology because of the input methods ... you are carrying around a handheld device with a full keyboard, it’s minuscule, and you have to use a pen or something small to activate the keys,” Berman said. “It reduces what you are saying to some dumbed-down form of communication.”

Aside from distractions, text messaging can cause other problems for professors.

“There is definitely the test-taking cheating group that has their advantages in being able to have something you can send to somebody else, fairly silently,” said 18-year-old economics major Dorian Bodine. “Then they just look at the cell phone and read ... which is why cell phones aren’t allowed at SATs.”

Bodine also points out another problem with text messages.

“I can’t send them to land lines,” he says. “There’s no point because how can they read it?”

Rahnoma had problems with the limitations of text messages when a friend did not understand the sarcastic quality of one of his text messages.

“Text messaging can create a lot of miscommunication because when you’re reading a text message, you don’t really know the mood or what the enunciation is on certain words,” Rahnoma said. “Cell phones and technology take away the intimacy of being able to sit down, look someone in the eye and have a conversation.”

For others, however, taking away the intimacy of conversation is the point.

“It can be used as a conversational tool and a buffer,” said Jessica Cooper, a 22-year-old English major, who responded to phone calls with text messages to distance herself from a person she was dating.

“If you have to tell somebody bad news, and you don’t want to tell them over the phone because of what they may say ... like when you are breaking up with somebody ... it’s easier to text,” the aforementioned biology major said.

Others find different ways to exploit the limitations of text messaging.

“It forces me to be more creative because I’m limited in what I have to say, so I’ll create little poems,” Mills said. “One of the people I text a lot is a poet, and we send little poems to each other.”

One problem with text messaging that does not have a potential upside is its tendency to distract people from what they are doing, such as driving.

Falahkhir said he creates or reads a text message at least every other time he drives. “It’s tough while you’re driving,” he said. “It’s a road hazard.”

“I’ve done it a few times, but I always feel guilty,” Mills said.

“I only text when I’m at a stop sign or a stop light,” Dyas said. “I don’t text while I’m in motion, but it’s still bad.”

Not only are new generations going to adapt to the technology of text messaging, but older generations may be adapting as well.

“I just taught my dad how to text message last night,” Rahnoma said.

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Orange Journalism:
A class project by the students of Journalism 134, Online In-depth Reporting, Fall 2006, with Dr. Richard Craig.