My Honors Thesis | Young People Are Always On Their Phones: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Text Messaging

As I said in my first post, I graduated last year from Western Oregon University with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and American Sign Language.  I was also part of the Honors Program, and in order to graduate I had to complete a thesis project.

For my thesis, I decided to investigate texting attitudes and patterns across demographics.  I did a survey, read a ridiculous amount of articles, and wrote my thesis.  That all sounds easier than it really was, but in the end it was fun--after the countless hours in the library, eyes glazing over from reading too much, and crying over how to organize all this data, of course.

The linguistics of text messaging is something I'm really passionate about now, so I might make posts about it and refer back to my thesis, so I decided to post it here so people could read it and have it as a reference if I post about it later.

Young People Are Always On Their Phones: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Text Messaging (link)

Abstract: Since the invention of texting in the 1990s, it has become a vital tool of interaction used by people all over the world. Texting is a unique form of communication because it uses written language to emulate aspects of spoken language through the usage of textisms – emoticons, abbreviations, acronyms, and more. It is these textisms that have been the cause of much hysteria and concern over the future of the English language, and most of the focus has been put on the biggest proponents of texting: young people. This senior thesis reviews the history of standardization in writing and research on texting to investigate the linguistic purpose and function of textisms. I surveyed members of my community to learn patterns in usage of and attitudes toward texting with a focus on demographics and claims against texting, with the goal to assert that texting is an incredibly innovative form of language that enhances, rather than degrades, English.

To entice you to read, here are some of my favorite lines:

• It’s the same reason that people use metaphors in poetry, and why elementary school children spell “boobies” with the numbers on their calculators: humans like to have fun with their language. (Culpepper 10-11)
• Indeed, what is the difference between shortening Monday to Mon. and totally to totes? It’s about the same difference as wearing a swimsuit in public versus underwear: social acceptability. (Culpepper 67)
• The idea of proper English is inherently ableist, racist, and classist. (Culpepper 75)

If you read it, please comment and let me know what you think.  I'd love to discuss it with people.