SCIENCE LAB REPORT

ANDREW MUNROE AND BRYCE BAUMGARTEN

9TH GRADE SCIENCE

Has Texting Made Calling an Obsolete

Method of Communication?
Is It Harmful?
Abstract.
We are trying to figure out if texting is changing the human brain and if this is morphing
how we communicate with everyone. Our motivation to research this idea, was that we
just wanted to know if texting is a reliable way to communicate with each other in

modern day life, is it as reliable as a face-to-face conversation, if its harmful, and if its
addicting. To find the data for our project we went around AHS and asked students and
teachers if they would prefer texting over calling, but also which they have to do more
of, because they were receiving texts and needing to respond with one. Our data
concluded that texting was making calling obsolete.
INTRODUCTION
Does texting change how we communicate with everyone, and make calling obsolete?
We found inspiration from seeing all of the students around us on their phones and
decided to try to find data to see if we could somehow change how they see texting as a
way to communicate. We are doing this report to see if we, as a human race are
changing how we communicate, to adapt to a changing world and to find conclusive data
if this is harmful to us. How we communicate with each other is essential to humans
adapting to a constantly changing world and if texting is changing this, then is it harmful
or is it helpful? We used information about texting affecting communication from NY
Times, they found specific evidence of how teenagers do not want to move around to talk
to someone close to them, so instead they texted in the same house. Washington Post,
describes how the new generation of people has completely forgone calling as a way to
communicate and how texting is a major part of modern life. We also got input from
students and teachers that we interviewed, they told us how they used texting in
everyday life.

HYPOTHESIS
If texting on mobile phones with messaging apps affects how we communicate with each
other, and makes calling obsolete, then humans will change how they talk because they
are trying to adapt with the current technology and each other, to stay connected.

Methods & Materials

1. Collected physical data from AHS students and teachers. We asked them,
Do you text or call more often in school? After they answered that question we
asked them why they prefered one method of communication over the other. We
also asked them if they were forced to text because that was how their
conversations were started by other people.

Results
Students

Text more

Call more

Students

26

Teachers

Total overall: 40

31

Our collected data shows that, students prefer to text over the option of calling because
they like that it is faster and they can send shorter precise messages, and they just prefer
to not call. Now, not all students prefered texting but considering the majority prefer
texting the amount of people who do actually call is really quite small and is conclusive
to our data relating that people are changing how they communicate. The amount was
that 3 people prefer to text, to every 1 person who likes to call. Some people do like to
call, but with the majority of people wanting to text and not answer phones, then the
callers are forced to text the people they wish to communicate with and this is bending
our society to conform to these new norms. We believe we could have improved our data
collection by sending out a survey, because we could have gotten specific answers and a
lot more test subject results, instead of physically going out and collecting the data
ourselves. With the experience that we got from this test could have helped us formulate
a better question, one that had more independent variables, that was more testable. Is
texting helpful? YES. sometimes texting is great, if people are in meetings and cant take
a call, or maybe if its late at night and people dont want to disturb others in the same
house with a loud ringtone. But texting can also be harmful! Texting can cause thumbs to
hurt and can often cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, which is quite annoying and painful.
People have started to communicate by texting even if they are in the same house and
even in the same room, just because they dont wish to get up and find the person or
open their mouths to say something with their physical voices.

Discussion
Students often replied that they would prefer to text simply because it was: Faster and
easier for them, it was less intrusive to others and self, it was easier to be precise about
what they wanted to say and they could take their time responding, that they dont have
to talk as much, and they also said that having to call someone was useless and took time.
But some people who prefered to call said that texting was harmful to the thumbs, and
that they sometimes got headaches from staring down at screens for long periods of
time. If texting is causing all of these problem then why is it so popular? Most

REFERENCES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

AHS Students
AHS Teachers and Staff
New York Times Online
Washington Daily Post
Ted Talk TED.com