Skylar's post on texting earlier today really resonated with me - so much so that what was meant to be a comment turned into a full-fledged blog post. Texting is a really great topic, and not one that we've really touched on too much in class so far (other than freaking out at the Android text notification, which I'll confess creeps me out more than a little).
Between my bicultural background and general geekiness, it's no surprise that I'm fascinated by cross-cultural comparisons of text messaging. Texting is a relatively straight-forward technology, easily replicable across language barriers and with a relatively low cost to entry. You'd think that people would text the same way all around the world - but you'd be wrong. Based on my personal experience, observations and conversations with texters from all overall the world, I've concluded that while some differences are culturally based, most are actually grounded in the structure of the overall ICT environment, notably the comparative costs associated with different modes of communication.
When I got my first US cell phone in 2002, text messaging was almost non-existent here, even among teenagers and college students, who tend to be pioneers in new modes of technology-mediated communication. In contrast, in France text messaging was extremely popular. The explanation was in the pricing: voice calls were MUCH more expensive in France, whereas texting was cheap, while the opposite was true in the US. Texting didn't really take off here until phone companies started to offer text message "bundles" (for example, mine is $5 a month for 200 messages). Now, I would say that use of text messaging is about the same in France and in the US, though Americans are still much more likely to have long conversations on their cell phones than the French are - again, because voice calls are much cheaper in the US than in France.
One practice that is very common in France but nonexistent in the US (as far as I can tell) is "beeping," or calling someone and only letting it ring once before hanging up. Usually this means "I'm out of cell minutes but I want to talk, so please call me back." Friends can sometimes use it as a pre-arranged signal for "I'm outside." "it's time to check the grill" or "You're really late and I'm seriously pissed" (I have personally "beeped" to convey all of these messages). A few years ago, French cell phone providers started offering billing-by-the-second in response to consumer groups complaining that it cost twice as much to make two 30-second phone calls as it did to make a single 1-minute call. Airtime is relatively expensive in France to start with, making consumers price-sensitive, but in this case there's also a cultural factor: there is no such thing as unlimited local calls in France like we have for US landlines, so people are not accustomed to talking on the phone just to pass time. Thus, the phone is for the transmission of information, not for communication in the ritual sense.
Other differences that I've observed include the use of email vs texting, different approaches to chatting online, whether emails are more like phone calls (US) or like letters (France)... It would be really interesting, I think to try to tease out which differences are attributable to the ICT environment (price, regulations, availability of services, etc) and which are cultural. Thoughts, anyone?
In Senegal, cellphone minutes are also expensive, so everyone texts. I never called to chit-chat with people there, because it cost so much.
ReplyDeleteBut, here's the other thing- I think that texting use is a generational preference. I personally don't like texting- I find it annoying because it takes too long to type in and will only do it if I have to. I like getting text messages though. I would much rather send emails. Most of my friends my age are the same about this. Maybe when our kids get older we will have to learn though, because some of my friends with kids who text have had to learn to text as well. And then they are told they aren't good at it and have to learn the language.
I heard a conference on the radio last year about texting language, and some teachers were concerned about kids learning bad grammar and spelling through texting. But the kids said they understood texting just to be another language and felt that they could separate out communication styles without difficulty.
I find it interesting bacause in China, i think people like texting more than making phone calls. It is of course cheaper to text. we can pay 20 RMB which is about 3 UBD for 400 texts.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest reason for that is in China, the location for people to register their cellphone number matters a lot. For example, if i register my cell in the city A and i travel to city B and make a call there, i should be charged extra money for the long distance; however, the fee for texting stays the same. For those people like businessman, texting can save them a lot of money. And in my view, texting is more about killing time, or chatting, rather than talking of infomring something serious.
Another thing interesting is that texting in classroom has been a problem now. Students especially young students just enjoy doing that even they are not talking about anything important. Every school are trying really hard to make regulations to stop it. So,there is a smart guy created a ringtone which only people younger than 40 can hear (i tested it on myself and my parents, it works!. There is a saying in China, where there is a policy, there is a strategy.