Text Messages (text + message)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Cyberbullying: its nature and impact in secondary school pupils

THE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 4 2008
Peter K. Smith
Background:, Cyberbullying describes bullying using mobile phones and the internet. Most previous studies have focused on the prevalence of text message and email bullying. Methods:, Two surveys with pupils aged 11,16 years: (1) 92 pupils from 14 schools, supplemented by focus groups; (2) 533 pupils from 5 schools, to assess the generalisability of findings from the first study, and investigate relationships of cyberbullying to general internet use. Both studies differentiated cyberbullying inside and outside of school, and 7 media of cyberbullying. Results:, Both studies found cyberbullying less frequent than traditional bullying, but appreciable, and reported more outside of school than inside. Phone call and text message bullying were most prevalent, with instant messaging bullying in the second study; their impact was perceived as comparable to traditional bullying. Mobile phone/video clip bullying, while rarer, was perceived to have more negative impact. Age and gender differences varied between the two studies. Study 1 found that most cyberbullying was done by one or a few students, usually from the same year group. It often just lasted about a week, but sometimes much longer. The second study found that being a cybervictim, but not a cyberbully, correlated with internet use; many cybervictims were traditional ,bully-victims'. Pupils recommended blocking/avoiding messages, and telling someone, as the best coping strategies; but many cybervictims had told nobody about it. Conclusions:, Cyberbullying is an important new kind of bullying, with some different characteristics from traditional bullying. Much happens outside school. Implications for research and practical action are discussed. [source]


Texting as a life phase medium

JOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION, Issue 2 2010
Rich Ling
SMS has grown to be a common form of interaction in Norwegian society. Its adoption started among teens but has since been taken into use by other age groups. However, the use patterns for teens seem to be different from those of older users. This paper examines the assertion that SMS is a life phase and not a cohort phenomenon. That is, its use is more intense among teens and more moderate among older age groups. Data for the analysis comes from a series of six nation-wide surveys of Norwegians over the age of 13. Questions on the reported use of SMS were included in all these surveys. This information was adjusted in order to remove the effects of generally increased use over time. The analysis shows that the proportion of text messages sent by different age groups stays rather stable over time. Indeed there seems to be a type of "standing wave" of use associated with older teens and those in their early 20s. While there are cohort effects visible in the data, the analysis indicates that texting is largely a life phase phenomenon. If the curve had flattened out with time it would have indicated that the teens are carrying texting with them as they grow older. This, it seems is not the case. The overall use of SMS has increased in Norwegian society but the relative distribution of the text messages has remained centered around those in their late teens. This seems to indicate that the intense use of SMS is a life-phase phenomenon. [source]


Alcohol and Cognitive Function: Assessment in Everyday Life and Laboratory Settings Using Mobile Phones

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 12 2009
Brian Tiplady
Background:, Mobile phone (cellphone) technology makes it practicable to assess cognitive function in a natural setting. We assessed this method and compared impairment of performance due to alcohol in everyday life with measurements made in the laboratory. Methods:, Thirty-eight volunteers (20 male, aged 18,54 years) took part in the everyday study, completing assessments twice a day for 14 days following requests sent by text messages to the mobile phone. Twenty-six of them (12 male, aged 19,54) took part in a subsequent two-period crossover lab study comparing alcohol with no alcohol (placebo). Results:, Everyday entries with 5 or more units of alcohol consumed in the past 6 hours (inferred mean blood alcohol concentration 95 ml/100 ml) showed higher scores for errors in tests of attention and working memory compared with entries with no alcohol consumed that day. Response times were impaired for only 1 test, sustained attention to response. The laboratory comparison of alcohol (mean blood alcohol concentration 124 mg/100 ml) with placebo showed impairment to both reaction time and error scores for all tests. A similar degree of subjective drunkenness was reported in both settings. Conclusions:, We found that mobile phones allowed practical research on cognitive performance in an everyday life setting. Alcohol impaired function in both laboratory and everyday life settings at relevant doses of alcohol. [source]


Mobile phones and Mipoho's prophecy: The powers and dangers of flying language

AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 2 2010
JANET MCINTOSH
ABSTRACT In this article, I examine the ideologies surrounding the poetic forms of Giriama text messaging in the town of Malindi, Kenya. I argue that young people use rapid code-switching and a global medialect of condensed, abbreviated English as an iconic index of a modern, mobile, self-fashioning, sexy, and irreverent persona, whereas their use of the local vernacular (Kigiriama) tends to reroot them in the gravitas of social obligations and respect relationships. In text messages, then, English and local African tongues are sometimes treated as foils for each other, suggesting that, rather than merely being mimicked, the English medialect is flavored by distinctly local concerns. Indeed, among many Giriama elders, the poetic patterns of text messaging are construed as a special breed of witchery in which hypermobility and linguistic innovation threaten ethnic coherence and even sanity itself. I suggest, however, that the use of Kigiriama in text messaging may point not to the abandonment of ethnicity but to new ways of being Giriama that are simultaneously local and modern. [mobile phones, text messaging, globalization, Kenya, witchcraft, language ideology, code switching] [source]


Front and Back Covers, Volume 24, Number 3.

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 3 2008
June 200
Front cover and back cover caption, volume 24 issue 3 Front cover Front cover: Front cover In this issue of ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Adrian Peace takes a critical look at the way in which neo-evolutionary theories and anthropological concepts are brought together in an award-winning campaign to sell more meat in Australia (his article is debated by four respondents on pp 23,25). Among others adopting a critical perspective, the animal rights movement was outraged at claims made about red meat as a ,natural', ,healthy' and ,essential' part of the average Australian diet. Just as a prominent film star was recruited to the ,Red Meat , Feel Good' campaign, the hugely popular Missy Higgins was deployed to front the response from the animal rights movement. The youthful and fresh-faced Australian singer-songwriter, cuddling the vulnerable white piglet, iconically represents an informed, intelligent and humane vegetarian approach to the future in the relationship between human and non-human animals. Higgins here makes a striking plea for ,enlightenment'. Enlightenment of a different kind is offered by the poster reprinted on the back cover, where an Indian transvestite celebrates the joy of a minority gender identity. Although the rights of both human minorities and non-human animals may be ,universal', they must be rendered in culturally specific terms in order to be politically effective. Back cover Back cover: modern enlightenment in ancient sacred sites ,Be enlightened!' In 2006 ,Shelly Innocence' launched a new phone service in Bodhgaya, Bihar, offering customers the opportunity to receive personal text messages of EnlightenmentÔ on their mobile phones. Large billboards with images of this virtual transgendered guru were erected outside the main temple to advertise the service. Not only is Bodhgaya a site of inspiration for millions of Buddhists around the world, but the seat of enlightenment has also come to mean very different things as this cosmopolitan pilgrimage town goes global. For many decades the state of Bihar, where Bodhgaya is located, has been one of the least attractive destinations for pilgrims, tourists and anthropologists because of its notorious reputation as one of the most impoverished and ,lawless' states in the country. However in recent years the Mahabodhi Temple complex in Bodhgaya has become the object of global attention as a UNESCO World Heritage site, setting in motion a series of initiatives to encourage tourism and city development plans. As a result of new conservation policies and demands on the built environment, the World Heritage designation has become invested with a diverse set of claims and meanings by various stakeholders and religious communities. As a site of dense historical, religious and political significance, Bodhgaya today is a unique locus where spiritual and digital worlds collide in the shade of the bodhi tree. [source]


The longitudinal course of bipolar disorder as revealed through weekly text messaging: a feasibility study

BIPOLAR DISORDERS, Issue 3 2010
Jedediah M Bopp
Bopp JM, Miklowitz DJ, Goodwin GM, Stevens W, Rendell JM, Geddes JR. The longitudinal course of bipolar disorder as revealed through weekly text messaging: a feasibility study. Bipolar Disord 2010: 12: 327,334. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Objectives:, To examine the feasibility of collecting course of illness data from patients with bipolar I and II disorder, using weekly text-messaged mood ratings, and to examine the time trajectory of symptom ratings based on this method of self-report. Methods:, A total of 62 patients with bipolar I (n = 47) or II (n = 15) disorder provided mood data in response to weekly cell phone text messages (n = 54) or e-mail prompts (n = 8). Participants provided weekly ratings using the Altman Self-Rating Mania Scale and the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptoms,Self Report. Patients with bipolar I and II disorder, and men and women, were compared on percentages of time in depressive or manic mood states over up to two years. Results:, Participants provided weekly ratings over an average of 36 (range 1,92) weeks. Compliance with the procedure was 75%. Overall, participants reported depressive symptoms 47.7% of the time compared to 7% of entries reflecting manic symptoms, 8.8% reflecting both depressive and manic symptoms, and 36.5% reflecting euthymic mood. Participants with bipolar I disorder reported more days of depression and were less likely to improve with time than participants with bipolar II disorder. Gender differences observed at the beginning of the study were not observed at follow-up. Conclusions:, The results are similar to those of other longitudinal studies of bipolar disorder that use traditional retrospective, clinician-gathered mood data. Text-message-based symptom monitoring during routine follow-up may be a reliable alternative to in-person interviews. [source]