IT 695 Week 4 (Pt.2)

Assigned Article:

Faulkner, Xristine, & Culwin, Fintan (2005). When fingers do the talking: a study of text messaging. Interacting with Computers. 17, 167-185.

Participants:

Survey: 565 Participants (440 London University Students, 125 cell phone shoppers), 256 female, 298 male, 11 undetermined
Diary Study: 24 Participants (23 students, 1 tutor - participation was part of course work) 3 female, 21 male

Method:

Questionnaires were distributed on campus and at a local cell phone shop. Participants were asked to report the number of text messages they sent/received and the purpose of those messages. They were also asked to report their preferred method of communication for various situations in order to rank their likelihood of texting. Diaries were completed by students in a computer studies course; details for all text messages (incoming and outgoing) were recorded for 2 weeks. Messages recorded in diaries were classified according to categories and entered into a web database.

Findings:

Survey: Texting is used more by younger participants and females, and their data suggests activity declines with age. Women were more likely to use texting for social purposes, men for business. Some situations were deemed appropriate for texting (questions, rendezvous, jokes), some were not (asking someone on a first date, offering condolences), though younger participants were less strict about this.
Diaries: Textish (words with vowels removed) was used less than the researchers expected (196 of 337 messages contained no textish). Of 15 identified categories, those with most messaging were questions, personal information, and signoff. Advertisements and commercial information were the least reported, but were the longest messages. The most popular days for messaging were Saturday, Sunday, and Friday, but not necessarily for planning social activities.

Interpretation:

I agree that this study was just to baseline text usage, not to determine educational use. I do think that since the study in 2004, the use of texting has changed dramatically. The study found the average number of messages daily was 5-6, but my teenage son sends/receives that many messages in 5 minutes. One of the purposes of the study was to determine texting's place in the hierarchy of methods of communication, and I believe that in the last few years it has far outpaced the growth of other mediums. I would be extremely interested to see the results of a similar study done today.