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On Texting (Performance Task)

Texting has become very popular in the Philippines, with some key characteristics and social effects: 1. The Philippines has become the texting capital of the world, averaging over 65 million text messages sent per day in 2001, double the world average. 2. Texting allows for both traditional and new forms of social relationships - it lets people like Vilma stay connected to old friends to reinforce her identity, but also enables new forms of intimacy like joking about taboo topics with parents. 3. It can also be used to avoid confrontation, as people can edit messages before sending to control anger or emotions.

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391 views2 pages

On Texting (Performance Task)

Texting has become very popular in the Philippines, with some key characteristics and social effects: 1. The Philippines has become the texting capital of the world, averaging over 65 million text messages sent per day in 2001, double the world average. 2. Texting allows for both traditional and new forms of social relationships - it lets people like Vilma stay connected to old friends to reinforce her identity, but also enables new forms of intimacy like joking about taboo topics with parents. 3. It can also be used to avoid confrontation, as people can edit messages before sending to control anger or emotions.

Uploaded by

Jay-ann Gumban
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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On Texting

Texting, as an abbreviated form of writing used on mobile phones and pagers with liny
screens and keyboards, suspends normal conventions of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. It is
a hybrid construct combining elements of writing with speech forms b... its mixing takes entirely
new resonances and characteristics. Texting appears as though people are talking when in fact
they are writing. Texting resembles speech because of its "ethereal and fleeting" qualities. Yet it
also resembles written text because the text has physicality in the form of the words symbols
printed on the screen.

The Philippines is now the texting capital of the world. Meryll Lynch reports that for the
st
1 quarter of 2001, there were approximately 7.2 million cell phone approximately 72 million
cell phone subscribers in the Philippines. For this period, the average SMS transmission was
about 65.4 million a day.” In 2002, Nokia estimated that there were around 10 million cell
phones in the country, transmitting 100 million to messages a day. While the absolute number of
cell phones is not large by international standards, the number of text messages sent by
subscribers is double the world average. Why is this so?

There is little doubt that this new interactive technology has made possible new
relationships. Furthermore, it has simultaneously reproduced traditional ties in expanded
circumstances. In our case studies, the cell phone allows for traditional roles and identities to
persist even in difficult circumstances. Hence, Vilma (Case 1) feels more fulfilled because her
cell phone connects her to old friends and colleagues, reinforcing important aspects of her
identity threatened by retirement and the frailties of old age. Another is the case of Sally & Elmo
(Case 3) whose courtship remained very traditional except for its being conducted via texting.
Texting also allows for new forms of intimacy between parents and children. Traditionally,
Filipino parents are loath to mention or discuss sexual topics with their offspring. However,
many of our adult informants say that they often text sexual jokes to one or both parents. Texting
seems to provide an acceptable medium for the transmission of normally tabooed topics. Perhaps
this is because texts combine privacy with detachment and impersonality.
Texting is also a way of avoiding confrontations. A young man informed us that in
texting, he can more easily control his anger. "In texting, I can edit the message before sending
it"

Another advantage that this modern means of interaction offers is that it seems to
encourage gender-balanced communication. Hence, women may initiate texting relationship as
often as men do. One of our respondents described how he was text-courted by a young woman.
She invited him to become her textmate and then later sent him romantic messages.
For Filipinos who are used to the directly apprehended, if complex, cues of morality text
merges meaning with intention. This poses the problem of the text messages being easily
misunderstood. In this context that judges, whom we interviewed, located the problem of
accepting texting as evidence in court. They claimed that it is difficult to discern the intention of
the texter in messages, especially in messages of a sexual nature. Mischievous jokes are more
easily distinguished from malicious ones in an oral rather than a textual exchange
-Adapted from Pertierra, Ugarte, Pingol, Hernandez & Dacanay (2002). Text Cell
phones and Philippine Modernity. Manila: DLSU Press, pp. 23-24
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