As someone who works with teens every day, I've pin-pointed a leading cause of this problem: it's group chats. That's where a bulk of the texting occurs between our teenagers. And it's absolutely affecting their sleep, their homework and their emotional well-being.
The other day I inquired informally with a group of 11th grade girls who admit that within the last week they've been a part of between 5-8 group chats. A group chat contains multiple recipients, and in general, the more people involved, the more messages sent and received. I work at a 1:1 school where students send and receive messages from their computer too--often during class. In one day, I had one girl project her phone screen as part of a presentation. The messages app on her phone contained 269 unread text messages. In the subsequent period I helped a 9th grader for five minutes on an essay, she received a text while I was typing on her computer from a friend. I noticed it was the 13th text she had received since she last checked them.
I was stunned; these interactions concern me. I can't imagine having 269 unread texts, that would take a year! I can't imagine having 13 text messages waiting for me on my phone... unless I was in a group-chat with a group of close friends. And that's precisely the problem with our teens.
So how do we deal with a problem that's only increasing in its frequency and its affect on our teenagers? In an age where it's so easy to end up in a group-chat and so hard to get out, and even I struggle to resist the allure of a shiny new text message buzzing my phone? "The study of more than 400 8th graders and 11th graders found that many teenage texters had a lot in common with compulsive gamblers, including losing sleep because of texting, problems cutting back on texting and lying to cover up the amount of time they spent texting."
Schools want to address problems of stress, sleep and attention/retention with school-work. So it's in a schools' best interest to acknowledge this problem and think about how to alleviate the problems associated with high volume texting. Fortunately, most teenagers will admit that texting (and multi-taking in general) hurts their studies. Regardless, there's a learning process that needs to happen.
- In schools we need to discuss social norms and dispel those that invite compulsory texting.
- We can also help equip students with tools that will help them avoid the allure of getting lost in lengthy, timely text-message and message conversations.
- Educators need to teach the science behind these issues so our students are aware of how much texting hurts their social-emotional well-being.
- There's a certain amount of follow-up required by the classroom teachers, the learning center, and the school counselors to remind students of the negatives associated with extensive texting. We need to be vigilant and willing to discuss and discipline in ways that enhance healthy habits.
