Texting

Texting has become one of the predominant ways modern society communicates. Mobile devices allow people to send multimedia messages, including pictures and videos, as well as simple typed messages. By the mid-2020s, some 98 percent of Americans owned a cell phone, according to a report published by the Pew Research Center in 2024, and the vast majority of cell phone owners regularly used their phone to send or receive text messages.

By the start of the twenty-first century, mobile technology had become a part of daily life for many Americans. Cell phone users were accustomed to faster connection speeds and more enhanced features. A surge of new devices that offered additional connectivity emerged as the communications industry realized the potential for such a market. First introduced to mobile phones as “short message service” (SMS) in 1994, text messaging, commonly called texting, grew popular as mobile phone technology improved. By the early 2000s, texting had become a social phenomenon, especially among the younger generation. It further permeated the culture with the advent of smartphones and social media, as users were able to download applications to send text messages through the internet.

Cell phone providers soon updated their technologies to allow users to send and receive pictures and videos. Many users—most notably teenagers—soon preferred texting over having phone conversations. The number of teens who owned cell phones rose exponentially in the twenty-first century. In 2004, 45 percent of teenagers owned cell phones; by the end of 2013, 78 percent owned a cell phone, 47 percent of whom owned a smartphone. By the mid-2020s, 95 percent of American teens reported having access to a smartphone. Over time, texting was overtaken by other means of messaging, mostly through social media. In addition to texting, teens received myriad notifications through social media and other apps every day. A 2023 report from Common Sense Media found that American teens received an average of at least 237 notifications on their phones daily. The sources of the highest numbers of notifications came from social media platforms Snapchat and Discord.

Many questioned the distraction caused by texting and other notifications, and eventually some schools banned cell phone use in the classroom. Because people tend to divert their attention exclusively to their phones while texting—even while engaged in such activities as driving a car—many critics became concerned about the activity.

Texting and Driving

By the time texting became widespread, people were already used to talking on the phone while driving. Texting while behind the wheel was a natural progression. As texting normally requires people to avert their eyes to their phone and remove their hand from the steering wheel, texting while driving is very dangerous. A study conducted by Car and Driver magazine found that the drivers surveyed were more distracted when texting than when driving drunk. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 3,275 people were killed by distracted drivers in 2023. This includes people texting on their phones, as well as drivers who were eating, using the entertainment system, or engaging in other distracting activities. Distracted driving was especially common among teenagers and also more dangerous for inexperienced drivers. The NHTSA reported that one-third of teens who text state they have done so while driving, and that texting while driving makes the risk of teen car crashes twenty-three times more likely. According to a 2024 report by Partners for Safe Teen Driving, cell phone use was responsible for 12.1 percent of fatal automobile crashes among American teenagers.

In 2007, Washington became the first state to pass a law banning texting while driving. By the mid-2020s, forty-nine states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands, had banned text messaging for all drivers. Federal legislators have attempted to withhold federal highway funds from states that do not make texting while driving illegal. Many states have enacted primary enforcement laws prohibiting the activity, which allows law enforcement officers to cite drivers for texting while driving without any other offenses. Worldwide, many countries have banned any kind of cell phone use, including talking and texting, while driving.

Impact

Throughout the twenty-first century, the rise of texting has given the world a broader sense of connectivity than ever before. Though it proved to be beneficial in terms of instant contact, texting was also credited with creating some separation in terms of generational etiquette. While older cell phone users were comfortable with spoken conversations, both face-to-face and by telephone, younger generations, particularly those who grew up with texting technology, began to take a different approach to human interaction. Some estimates have counted trillions of text messages being sent each year worldwide, making it one of the most important technological advances in history.

Texting has inspired debate on a number of issues. Some scholars believe that the abbreviated language used in text messages is damaging to language in general and has affected people’s ability to spell and communicate effectively. Many worry that too much texting hinders people’s ability to hold face-to-face conversations. This concern has been mainly directed at adolescents, who at that age are still developing social skills. According to one report, 90 percent of Americans prefer text messages to phone calls.

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