Media: Cell Phones and Texting

After Monday's discussion and lecture on cell phone use and texting, I took some time to think about this and look at more research presented on texting and cell phone usage.  There are a handful of interesting studies, but  one thing I thought was interesting about the correlation between aggression and texting is that text messaging presents a very impulsive way of interacting.  It is not like writing a letter, or an email even- it is an informal, deemed personal/private and quick way to interact with someone for whatever reason.  When people spend a lot of time using this as a primary mode of communication, especially for disagreements or very personal usage as the like, it is easy to get in the habit of saying something impulsively merely because it is at the touch of your fingertips.  Because of these studies, and my own frustrations with the text messaging world, I think I am going to start cutting back my text messaging and especially the depth of personal usage and use it more for sending or receiving information quickly.