Do people who text have lower social and writing skills than those who do not? Texting is getting more and more popular with people these days. The first text message was sent on December 3, 1992. Since the year 2000, texting has become more convenient and easier to use with all the new phones coming out. Americans ages 15-29 send and receive the most texts. Phone carriers have created plans that involve unlimited text messaging. This has increased how much texts are sent by day. Texting has caused a lack of physical interactivity, declining writing skills, but it does have its advantages. The advancement in texting has hampered the physical interaction skills of many people. According to a Pew Institute survey, text messages sent monthly blew up from fourteen billion in 2000 to One-Hundred and eighty-eight billion in 2010. Due to rising numbers of texting people do not know how to interact with each other in person. They do not know what gesture or attitude to carry. Most people cannot even hold a conversation, because they do not know how to interact with people without their phones. These interactions do not just apply to the world around us, they also apply to our friends. Texts can be simple and easy to use, but it ultimately means we see our friends a lot less. Texting has also caused a pattern in bad writing habits.
Texting does not require us to use perfect grammar. People who text usually use very little grammar or no grammar whatsoever. The poor use of grammar in texting has translated to poor writing skills. The writing skills of today's youth have declined immensely. The young generation are relying on texting so much that they have forgot about most of their writing skills. A high school English teacher named Carrie Beth Buchanan has seen the effects of texting. Carrie said, "Many students have become dependent on electronic spell-checkers. As a result, I spend a significant amount of time circling misspelled words on assignments.