By:Christine Devlin (WVU)

Enya Messersmith (WVU)

Caitlin Rose (Texas)

Meredith Donaldson (OU)

NOTHING TO LOL ABOUT: DIGITAL NATIVES AND

THE EFFECTS OF TEXTING

Cellphones are the primary source of communication especially among digital natives

Cellphones limit the amount of nonverbal communication

Diminishing nonverbal skillsDiffi culty maintaining personal and

professional relationships

WHY STUDY DIGITAL NATIVES AND THE EFFECTS OF TEXTING?

Nonverbal skills are affected by more than just textingPersonalityUsage

IT’S NOT THAT SIMPLE

Who are digital natives? People who are born into the digital world (Prensky,

2011). native speakers

Nonverbal Communication The various ways people communicate without

language i.e. eye behavior, touch, body movement, facial expressions.

Nonverbal communication is a learned skill (Riggio, 2006).

DIGITAL NATIVES & NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

Why are digital natives showing a lack of nonverbal skills?

2 theories

1. Displacement hypothesis

2. Brain Development

DIMINISHED NONVERBAL ABILITIES

Definition Schramm studied children and television More time spent w? activity A = less time spent w/

activity B

Displacing FtF communication w/ digital comm. Nonverbal communication is a skill

Practice=perfect

DISPLACEMENT HYPOTHESIS

Mullen neural pathways necessary in the development of

interpersonal skills = unstimulated and underdeveloped

Small & Vorgan: Ibrain digital technology is rewiring our brain and altering how we

behave Altered behavior- learning differently Focus on technological skills NOT fundamental social skills

Iacoboni: Mirror neurons Neural network Nonverbal cues Developed w/ FtF experience

DEVELOPMENT

H1: Digital natives have deficient nonverbal communication skills.

What’s the problem?Not every digital native lacks nonverbal communication. Why are some digital natives able to pick up on nonverbal cues better than others?

PersonalityAccess to mobile phone usage

HYPOTHESIS

Personality predicts nonverbal abilityExtroversion

Enjoy human interactionTalkative, enthusiastic, assertive, outgoing

Introversionkeep to themselves, less outspoken

MODERATING EFFECT OF PERSONALITY

Extroverts are better communicatorsExtroverts display less communication

apprehensionCommunication Apprehension (CA)

Defined (Introverts)“Broadly based anxiety related to oral communication” (McCroskey, 1970)

Level of fear associated with real or anticipated communication with another person

Leads to avoidance behaviors, social isolation

EXTROVERTS

Extroverts tend to have more friendsExtroverts spend more time in face-to-face communication

Therefore extroverts practice nonverbal skills more often than introverts

EXTROVERTS VS INTROVERTS AND THEIR BEHAVIORS

H2: Digital natives who are more extroverted have better nonverbal communication skills.

People who have extroverted personalities are likely to have more friends which allows them more opportunity to practice their nonverbal communication skills.

HYPOTHESIS

The amount of texts influence NV communication

Digital Natives who text more frequently lose time that could be spent on face to face communication

USAGE OF TEXTING

Defined Cue Lean

Texts lack nonverbal signalsHistory

Designed for task, used as social One does not need NV for task based communication (it

actually gets in the way) however, texting is now used as a social communication

“I was a young engineer working on new communications technologies. We thought texting was a clever way for a company's staff to send simple messages to one another. I'd never have predicted that it would spread into the consumer world and become what it is today. At the time it didn't seem like a big deal” (Silver, 2011).

SMS

Digital Natives prefer texting The number of texts being sent is on the rise, especially

among teenagers age 13 to 17. According to Nielsen, the average teenager now sends 3,339 texts per month. (Parr, 2010)

"I think that's pretty bad because I think when these kids grow up and it's time to form their permanent relationships, they're not going have any idea how to communicate with another person. No idea. They're going be texting their spouses from diff erent rooms," said a worried Virginia mom

Cost effi cient and more convenient

MORE TEXTING LESS FACE TO FACE

H3: Digital Natives who text more will have decreased ability for NV skills

Even Psychiatrist Dr. Lise Van Susteren agrees that texting is an emotionless thing. (The Money Times, 2012)

The more a digital native texts predicts a decrease in the amount of face to face communication which will then decrease the suffi ciency of their NV skills

HYPOTHESIS

Use of text messaging is a function of how accessible it is

Different phone plans offer varying degrees of accessibility

Unlimited plans see more texting

UNLIMITED TEXT MESSAGING PLAN

H4: Digital natives with an unlimited text messaging plan will send more text messages .

HYPOTHESIS

SUMMARY

THEORETICAL MODEL