14 DAY TRIAL // According to the conclusions of a new investigation, it would appear that people who use a lot of text messages are less likely to accept or interpret new words or phrases. The study that showed this correlation was carried out on college students.
Scientists at the University of Calgary say that the findings apply to those who text for extended periods of time every day. Finding out whether cell phone usage is hampering with our ability to process language has been a scientific goal for several years.
In the new experiments, UC graduate student Joan Lee set up a series of tests meant to assess people's linguistic abilities after prolonged texting. The results were then compared to those obtained from a group where members read books, magazines, and newspapers.
This allowed researchers to conduct a pertinent comparison between the effects of new media and traditional print media. The next step in the experiments was to introduce members of both groups to real and fictitious words.
Those in the test group were less likely to learn or adopt the new words. People in the control book, who consumed traditional media, were considerably more likely to become interested in the new words, PsychCentral reports.
The conclusion this study arrived at is very counterintuitive, experts say, since many believed that language originality and creativity were at home in those who texted a lot. Apparently, that is not really the case in practical terms.
“Our assumption about text messaging is that it encourages unconstrained language. But the study found this to be a myth,” Lee adds. The expert believes that she can account for these differences.
“The people who accepted more words did so because they were better able to interpret the meaning of the word, or tolerate the word, even if they didn’t recognize the word. Students who reported texting more rejected more words instead of acknowledging them as possible words,” she explains.
When people read traditional print media, they are exposed to creative, varied language, with each book or magazine bringing something new to the table. On the other hand, text messages are only sent between peers, meaning that the amount of linguistic diversity is significantly more reduced.
“In contrast, texting is associated with rigid linguistic constraints which caused students to reject many of the words in the study. This was surprising because there are many unusual spellings or ‘textisms’ such as ‘LOL’ in text messaging language,” Lee concludes.