On Morning Joe this morning, in a spot featuring Bill Clinton's Georgetown college roommate, it was stated that the average cell-phone toting college student sends 80 text messages per day. I asked members of Political Behavior if this seemed like a reasonable (accurate) "average." The class estimated that the average would be closer to 100 text messages per person per day. As someone who takes several minutes to compose a simple text message, I find this number hard to believe. This is not about email; it's about cell-phone text-messaging. If this is accurate, how much time does the "average" college student devote daily to reading and sending text messages?
Parenthetically, the reading assigned for today in Political Behavior was on the media/news habits of this generation (and Gen X) compared to earlier generations. The book by Wattenberg asserts a huge drop off in the consumption of political news by the 18 to 30 year-old cohort. If the data he cites are reliable, could there be a connection here? Inquiring minds want to know: is the 80 text messages/per day on the mark? How does one process 80 text messages? And if 80 is accurate as an average, what is the actual high end of the range? And if an "average college student" has time to exchange 80 text messages with his/her friends, why is it apparently so difficult by comparison to post a thought on Obamadogs?
:-), DT
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is interesting to me. I personally do not send 80 text messages per day. In fact, I just did a count of the text messages I have sent thus far today: 11. I sent 22 yesterday (I was awake from 7 am to 1:30 am). But I am also someone, if I have more than 4 text exchanges with a person, unless they are in the middle of something, I generally call them. I think it is very well an explanation of the lack of interest in classes, as most students text all through class. I'm interested to see the other numbers of people.
ReplyDeletePeople in the Intro class also believed that 80 was an understatement on the averaged texts sent per person per day. My question, finally, was what effect, if any, this exchange of information -- in packets of one or two sentences at most -- had on the capacity of the brain to process and sythesize complex arguments in heavy reading assignments. One person responded. She said, my worry was unfounded: she sent many text messages and is reading Paradise Lost for fun, and read Madison's Federalist No. 10 rather easily. Since I do not text personally, I have no real grounds for disputing this. I do, however, have immense curiosity about the "quality" of these text communiques as well as their quantity. What would be so important in the course of an average person's day that they felt compelled to share 80 pieces of information bearing on their experience through the day? How could an average person have that interesting a life? Or an audience with that degree of interest in one's experience over the course of the day?
ReplyDeleteHello DT, et. al.,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I am still a "SPECIALLY DESIGNATED ASSOCIATE WHO IS DEEMED WORTHY OF MEMBERSHIP IN THIS EXCLUSIVE CLUB," but I figured I would post anyway since I saw that this was the "Blog of the Month" on the Alumni Email!
I think most of the texting phenomenon is a non-sensical means of communication, not so much sharing information but rather the non-sharing of information [i.e. "Hey, what's up, (or "wut up") you read for class yet?"]
I also think it's the opposite from having an interesting life - it may be that the one's who send 200 messages a day have boring lives and need to have some sort of connection with others, so they send a text.
It might also be about feeling important - who doesn't feel special when their phone goes off and everyone knows that they are popular?!
Either way, I think it has gone too far. However, it is obviously a staple in our society today - people willing to risk their lives texting while driving, and people running into each other on the downtown sidewalks while walking and texting...
Hope all are well! Congrats on surviving "The Ricci"
Welcome back to Obamadogs, Mr. President. Once a member (almost) always a member of Obamadogs. I hope law school is moving quickly and interestingly. We are enjoying our post-caucus, post-GOP counting mess-up weather immensely; but it makes the capstone seem a tad bit more surreal than Ricci when that volume is paired with above-freezing temps and now snow. I find myself wondering if it's Fall Term, but we'll be in DC before too long at the Virginian Suites after the Court completes its oral arguments and the cherry blossoms have bloomed on the Mall.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if you've heard what Hillary's plans for the post-2012 election cycle. She's doing a bang-up job at State, but that job takes a toll, and she's looking a wee bit tired lately.
Thanks for your comments on the texting issue. It's perhaps one that someone will investigate in a Q study. It's a huge phenomenon obviously, and we've not even begun to understand it scientifically.
Cheers,
DT
I feel like I definitely do not send that many text messages a day! I believe there is probably a correlation between how many texts a student sends a day and whether or not they read the newspaper daily or even once a week. I believe that you would find that the more texts a person sends, the less likely they are to read a newspaper. I do not send texts because I like to see my friends and interact with them in person. I like to stay connected in a more personal way than through technology. However, if you send 200 messages a day, you do not really want to stay connected with the outside world. I could sit in my bed and talk to thirty people through texts and not have to experience the outside world at all! People are just avoiding reality, avoiding awkward silences that may happen in person, and avoiding life really. Pick up a newspaper kids.
ReplyDeleteI would really like to think that there is a linkage between the number of texts a person sends a day to the amount of time and friends they have. Besides, who said that texting is the new face to face interaction??? You cannot possibly have a meaning conversation with a person via texts, especially with the word limit and all. Technology as Elise noted, can never replace the face to face interaction. Just imagine Obama instead of coming out to talk, and ask for votes, sending out texts every after 5 minutes. That will be so annoying...
ReplyDelete