INTRODUCTION

The rapidly growing rate of phone technology at this modernized generation is kind of
disturbing. There remains much controversy about the effects that text messaging may have on
the learning experiences of today’s youth. Cellular phones have become one of the necessities in
today’s modern lifestyle for every teenagers and adults. Human beings are growing at the rate
with these devices. In which, they are depending on cellular phones for accomplishing their day
to day activities related to their profession and personal lives. People can’t even think of to stay
away with it for few hours. It seems that anywhere you can see people are glued to their phones-
screen, fingers typing away. And the majority of these people are teenagers. In general, the use
of text messaging has escalated due to the popularity and common use of cellular telephones.
In general, the use of text messaging has escalated due to the popularity and common use
of cellular phones. What the effects that text messaging is having on the teen literacy? Thus text
messaging thought to have possibly negative and positive effects on student literacy? What are
the impacts that texting is making on teenagers language and writing skill nowadays? And is
texting detrimental to literacy? These are the questions that the research explores in this paper.
Text messaging, or texting, is the act of typing and sending a brief, electronic message
between two or more mobile phones or fixed or portable devices over a phone network according
to. The term originally referred to messages sent using the Short Message Service or SMS; it has
grown to include messages containing image, video, and sound content, known
as MMS messages. The sender of a text message is known as a texter, while the service itself has
different colloquialisms depending on the region. It is simply referred to as a text here in
Philippines.
LITERATURE REVIEW
With the revolutionary new forms of communication that technology has introduced
comes a debate on what effects these new digital mediums have on literacy. The activity of
communicating to others in the form of written text-based messaging through cellular phones is
so common place in today’s society, that it should be interesting to know that it has not been
existence for that long.
 One study (Hogan et al., 2012) states that cell phones are becoming a necessity this
modern day, to the point where every teenager and adult must have at least one. Individuals are
rapidly depending to these devices for communication purposes.
Most new technologies such as text messaging emerge on the social and academic scene.
Many people are cautious and untrusting of new technologies that they worry about the riff it
could cause in the talk of literacy. It is important for academics to embrace the importance of
bringing daily literacies used by younger generations to engage them more critically in the talk
of language and technology. (Thurlow, 2006)
Based on John Myhra’s article, “Negative Effects of Texting in the Classroom”, the over-
use of texting has been damaging to the way students write formally in the school premises and
even in the society. The character limitations of text messages have caused students to form their
own style of writing and terminologies. This style has caused them to carry it over to formal
academic writing projects. Students’ writings are little to no depth, terrible grammar, and are
abbreviating almost every word they write. Texting has negatively affected the way students
write. (Myhra, 2010)
A brief history of text messaging was also provided by David H. Urmann (n.d) who
revealed the following interesting bits of information:
“The first text was message sent during 1989 by Edward Lantz, a former NASA
employee, who sent the text message through a Motorola beeper.” This was done by “writing the
numbers upside down to read the message” (par. 6).
Further that “on December 3, 1992 in the United Kingdom, the first Short Message
Service (SMS) was used in a commercial sent through a Vodafone GSM network. The SMS
message was sent by Neil Papworth with the use of desktop computer” (par. 7).
Globally, there are numerous SMS users to include 72% of the population in Finland,
Norway, and Sweden and 82% of the population in Europe and North America.
In addition, Urmann stated that studies conducted at the University of Queensland
revealed the addictive quality that texting has and was compared to the addiction capability of
smoking. This is an example of another perspective related to text messaging that may require
further study.
 Another text-messaging event that occurred more recently and may be perceived by
some as history-making was reported by Thurlow and Poff (2010) about the text message that
Barack Obama sent as president elect when he text messaged his choice for vice-president of the
United States. The authors stated that they were not convinced of the event as historic, but
nonetheless, the media treated it that way in the New York Times, which described the
occurrence as “Mr. Obama’s use of the newfound medium is the widest use of texting by a
presidential candidate in history” (p. 1). It is likely the text message that Mr. Obama wrote was
given historic significance because text messaging even as recently as three years ago was still a
relatively new technology.