Raegan Galleher & Adrianne Manseau

Why do people text?

We used focus groups, interviews, and surveys to gather data that would help us explain texting communication behaviors among young adults, and we are in the process of coding all the data from these three forms of research. We are looking to place all of our data into our four main coding categories: Relational/Emotional (develop relationships), Logistical/ Technical (basic information exchange), Reactive behaviors, and Problematic behaviors (reasons for frustration with communication and how people respond to it).

For our research question, we looked at the factors associated with young adults’ choice to text rather than use other forms of communication. Looking at our research, it seems like young adults pay close attention to how timely the conversation should be. For messages that needed a quick response, the asynchronity of texting caused problems. Texting was seen instead for combating boredom, as a social buffer, or for conversation that weren’t urgent. We hypothesized that young adults will prefer communication through texting for messages that are not very emotionally complex, but for messages that are emotionally complex young adults will prefer face-to-face communication. According to our data, it seems that young adults are most often inclined to text in order to maintain relationships. Texting allows for a conversations of substance that will not occupy a large chunk of time the way a phone call would. Due to the difficulty of portraying emotion through texting, and the miscommunications that stem from it, face-to-face or phone calls are the preferred methods for serious or intimate conversations.

Overall, though we are not completely done with our research project, we can make a tentative conclusion that texting is chosen as a preferred mode of communication based on the context, goal of the message, and audience that the message is being sent to. When having a serious conversation, young adults will seem to prefer face to face conversation, while texting is better for facilitating lighter, less serious conversations.