Philippine E-Journals

Let's Talk About Txt! Understanding the Texting Culture of the Filipino Youth

Ma. Regina E. Estuar

Discipline: Psychology

 

Abstract:

The texting culture of the Filipino youth was investigated by looking at patterns of cellular phone ownership and usage across school (private and public) and gender (male and female). There exist high ownership and high usage regardless of school or gender. Significant differences were found in terms of length of ownership, frequency of use, use per feature, average texting rate and survival rate. Private school students were more frequent users of cost-incurring features, while public school students were more frequent users of the no-cost features of mobile phones. The former also have a higher texting rate than their public school counterparts. Survival rate (e.g., the number of days one can survive without a cellular phone) is higher among males and public school students. Factor analysis showed that there are underlying attitudes towards cellular phone usage, namely: degree of sensitivity to messages being sent or received, usage domain, degree of attachment to the phone, amount of intrusion on personal space and degree of need for connectivity. Significant correlations were found between usage and the underlying factors. Content analysis of reasons why adolescents like texting (explicit reasons) and stored messages (implicit reasons) showed significant differences in preferences.