As of 2025, 75 percent of teens use texting as their main form of communication.
The average teen sends up to 60 text messages a day, according to The Pew Research center. Here at THS, interviewed students say they spend 1-2 hours a day texting on average.
Teens will often use texting to communicate without fully considering the advantages and disadvantages.
The efficiency of texting is something that is appealing to many teens and allows us to communicate something within seconds when needed.
“I text because it’s convenient, easy, and I can do it at any time in the day.” Said Avery Feist, freshman at THS.
On top of that, texting allows us to fully process what is happening. When texting, it is easier to fully think through how you want to respond.
“I like texting because I can take time to understand what the other person is really trying to say,” said freshman, Mattew Pistachio.
Although texting has become a norm and can be more convenient than speaking in person or calling at times, there are still plenty of disadvantages.
For example, the lack of body language cues causes miscommunication to happen more frequently over text.
“You don’t know how they really react to it, you can lie on text and it’s hard to lie in real life,” said Duncan Raffety, freshman at THS.
If there are no physical cues on what someone is feeling it can be difficult to accurately represent true emotions. With the lack of body language it is especially important to be direct and clear when texting to prevent miscommunication.
“I think maybe the correct use of emojis or just punctuation in general would help clear up the way they hear the text in their mind ” Said Raffety
However miscommunications over text can still happen nonetheless, that is why many people prefer speaking in person. When speaking in person you are able to use body language to show how you feel about something.
“I prefer speaking in person because you can see the person’s face and how they react to what you say.” said Avery Feist, freshman at THS.
Furthermore, many people prefer to speak in person when it comes to difficult subjects.
“What can be difficult when texting is [speaking about] hardships. I feel like you need to be face to face with them, because they are more intimate…. Also when I’m less social at the moment I would want to text or call.” said Hana Labeux, freshman at THS.
In the end, being mindful with our words and language and knowing how to advocate for ourselves when communicating with others is the only way to ensure a clear productive conversation.