As humans we live in an interdependent society. This means that in order to achieve everything we wish to accomplish in life we have no choice but to rely on others to help us along the way. This means that communication is a necessity in everyday life and may even be argued that in this ever so complex world, communication is more important (and integrated in society) than ever. As society expands more people are being born in to what is being called the “era of technology”. Modern day teens are some of the first people that have to experience and have to learn to adapt and efficiently utilize all of the world’s new technologies. Among society adolescents are some of the most constant participators in communication. The world is all about the newest fad that can bring information to you sooner, or send out a personal message quicker. In the world where in a matter of seconds you can be aware of what anyone around the world is doing, constant new age technological communication can be the force that keeps everyone together while also being the force that drives everyone apart.

Between the ages of 8 and 13 (pre-adolescence) is when kids are in the process of developing key relationship and communication skills, and typically want to spend as much time as they can with their peers. Technology provides new ways to do so that is not only appealing in almost every aspect teen’s look for, but also remains highly effective at the same time. In the world today teens experience so many opportunities to communicate through technology that the belief has been raised that teen’s ability to communicate face to face has been negatively affected. Teens often communicate through a few dominant channels of technology. These channels are cell phones (both vocal and texting), video games, and social networking. Out of these channels texting comes in at the most dominant due to the fact that as of 2013 “78% of teens now have a cell phone, and almost half (47%) of those own smartphones.” ^[1] Although texting plays the most dominant role in the manipulation of communication among teens nowadays, all the channels contribute to the end effect.

Text messaging has become the most commonly used way that teens reach their peers. This now is more frequent than face-to-face meetings, email, instant messaging and voice calling. Results from a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project conducted with 800 youth ages 12-17 and their parents between June 26-September 24, 2009 show that

"While many teens are avid texters, a notable minority are not. One-fifth of teen texters 
(22%) send and receive just 1-10 texts a day or 30-300 a month [2]:

A large portion of teens now also use their phones for other reasons, the same study's findings show^[3]:

-83% use their phones to take pictures.

-64% share pictures with others.

-60% play music on their phones.

-46% play games on their phones.

-32% exchange videos on their phones.

-31% exchange instant messages on their phones.

-27% go online for general purposes on their phones.

-23% access social networking sites on their phones.

-21% use email on their phones.

-11% purchase things via their phones.

Extensive research has been conducted to test whether there is a correlation between video games and social behavior among teenagers. According to Nintendo Ambassador, Turd Furgy, appointed by the President and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, "Behavioral problems can arise from having a deficiency in social skills, which can lead to high levels of anger and anxiety...Being in a social environment promotes social skills...Playing video games usually does not involve a social network" ^[4] Usually when a gamer is in process, he or she is confined to a familiar room with little to zero interaction between other gamers. Sessions, as they're called, average 2-3 hours before the gamer sets the controller down to pick up a different activity. Furgy continued, "This alienation from human contact made social relationships more difficult to maintain...Since the mind is dedicated to the game for long periods of time, the mind kind of melds with the game." In essence, the gamer depends on the game to fulfill needs, giving the game more importance in a gamer's life and; therefore, has a larger effect on the gamer, as outlined by the principles of dependency theory.

In order to understand changes in social behavior, it is important to understand what goes on in the brain as video games are consumed. Doctors of the Pschology Department at Iowa State University, Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Bushman, explained, "Violent media increase aggression by teaching observers how to aggress, by priming aggressive cognitions (including previously learned aggressive scripts and aggressive perceptual schemata), by increasing arousal, or by creating an aggressive affective state." ^[5] The same goes for different video-game genres as well. In other words, video games can leave an imprint on a person's involuntary/voluntary actions or reactions in the brain. This poses a scary thought considering a gamer may not be able to control his or her reaction to a real-life events; thus, rendering the reaction to scripts influenced over time by video games.

Many cases have been found to support the claim that video games drastically alter social behavior. In the three towns of Paducah, Kentucky, Jonesbro, Arkansas and Littleton, Colorado, similar school shootings found the shooters were all devoted gamers who "habitually played extremely violent video games." ^[6] No concrete evidence was finalized, but it raises more concern over whether there in fact was a link to the tragic shootings and violent video games.

Adversely, there are many professional findings to support the claim that video games can have a positive effect on teenagers. According to the Senior Lead Analyst for Majesco Entertainment, "The effect a video game has socially on a person greatly depends on the type of video game...can be influential...reasonable to expect that a child assumed the role of a positive character, or has been rewarded for good behavior will more likely to later act in similar ways if given the opportunity." ^[7] He goes on to mention the use of multi-player via sitting next to a friend and playing, or via online headsets. For those who find a difficult time meeting friends outside the gaming community, it could be seen as a valuable stepping stone to ease the individual into a more comfortable setting. Learning to work together, as often demanded by many games, can have a positive effect on group success in the workforce.

Regardless which spectrum one choses to lean towards, an alarming majority contend that a certain combination of personality traits can help predict which teenagers will be more likely affected by video games. Associate Professor Department of Psychology Villanova University, Patrick Markey, used the most widespread psychological model of personality traits, known as the Five-Factor Model (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to experience, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness), to explain the multitude of effects. For instance, analysis showed that children who are most likely to become hostile after playing violent video games are those with high neuroticism, low agreeableness and low conscientiousness. Ultimately, he concluded, "Those who are negatively affected have pre-existing dispositions, which make them susceptible to such media." ^[8] It is widely accepted that altered social behavior and stimulated reactions in real-life can be traced to pre-existing scripts and schemata. Parents and mentoring figures are largely held responsible for helping to build a sound foundation to which teenagers can use to accurately comprehend right from wrong. Also, to use the foundation as a channel to effectively execute face-to-face communication as not provided with most video-game playing scenarios. Essentially, teenagers who accumulate socially acceptable scripts through life experiences are less likely to be negatively influenced by video-games in terms of lashing out or being socially awkward.

Good example of marketing video-games as "real-life" to give the appearance of face-to-face social interaction ^[9]

Climactic scene from the movie, Surrogate, revealing the truth about living life through a console ^[10] 3:56-4:24

One of the most important functions of a human being is being able to have personal interaction with other individuals. Now with the advancements in technology and social networking, teens and people all over the world are losing the function of the personal interaction. People are now going onto another’s social network page and finding out more about the person by just poking around on their page a little than by calling a person on the telephone or talking face-to-face with the person.

“Technological Determinism Theory attempts to help explain how changes in methods of communication through advancements in technology impacts general society.” ^[11]This means that people learn how to act and behave due to the technological advances that they are working with. Teens are learning that they don’t always have to deal with someone’s emotions while they are talking face-to-face due to the fact that they can just type in whatever they want and they don’t know exactly how the other person is going to take it because they cannot see the other person’s face.

There was a study done in 1998 to “examine the relationship between Internet use and the aspects of social involvement and psychological well-being.” The study was thought to have shown that people who use the internet and social networks would increase “their sense of social support and feel less lonely, be less affected by stress, and have improved mental health.” The results of the study showed that none of the hypothesis was right. The study showed that the study group felt less social involvement, felt lonely more times than not, and felt more depressed than they did before they started using the internet more. Another result of the study was that the study group felt a decrease in communication among their own family members. ^[12]

Along with feeling lonely, being very stressed, and not being able to communicate, the increase of social networking has shown an increase of cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying started off as just bullying between two or more individuals face-to-face, but as the advance of social networking came about, people found easier ways to bully other people. Teens have shown in surveys that there was a doubling of online harassment from 2000 to 2005. People can now go onto a social network page and post a comment or video of bullying another individual. When cyber bullying happens, teens become more scared of going to social places like school where they can get bullied even more. ^[13]

Studies have shown that when a conflict arises in the world that is not online, individuals are having a rougher and rougher time of resolving the conflict due to the increase use of social networks. With adolescents’ high use of social networks, they are experiencing a larger number of conflicts with their parents and other relationships. These adolescents are having trouble being able to communicate the conflict with the other individual due to the decrease of human contact and use of face-to-face communication. ^[14]

With the increase of social networking among adolescents, the next generation will not be able to hold face-to-face communications due to the fact that they are stuck in front of a screen for hours upon hours of their day, instead of looking up and talking to another person face-to-face.

Mark Poster defined this as the "second media age" meaning that most of the social interaction was forming on computers and other technology^[15] According to clinical psychologist Michael J. Breus, Ph.D., teenagers send approximately 100 text messages per day, amounting to a whopping 3,400 text messages every month. In many cases, teens are texting during school, while driving and when they should be fast asleep, recharging their bodies for school the next day. With texting interrupting just about every aspect of their lives, it leaves some to wonder how teenagers who can’t put down their cell phones are affected. it can be broken down into have subgroups sleep texting, school, social, driving and the other Possibilities

Sleep Texting Sleep texting is an increasing phenomenon affecting teens. Many teens' texting lives do not end when the lights go out for the night. In fact, some teens are responding to texts while they sleep. Much like a sleepwalker, the teen sends and responds to text messages during the first two stages of sleep. Joe Schroeder, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Connecticut College, explains that it is not unusual for someone who is very attached to their cell phone to respond to a text message while she is not fully awake. The result the next day is a very tired, moody teen who may not even remember responding to the text. To show how much of a problem texting is becoming please look at the video below

http://video.foxnews.com/v/2164835980001/^[16]

School Teen texters use a texting lingo that includes abbreviated words and sentences. These shortened versions of the English language are migrating into teens' schoolwork. A study by the Media Effects Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University revealed that teens who text more have poorer grammar and spelling skills in school. These hypertexters are finding it difficult to transition between their street-texting language and formal, written schoolwork.^[17]

Social Texting is affecting the ways teens communicate people -- in some instances, texting is replacing face-to-face conversations. According to Bonnie Ellis, Ph.D., a public-speaking coach and director of academic affairs for the University of Phoenix Detroit, texting has reached such an extreme that instead of having verbal discussions, teens are texting back and forth while sitting right next to each other. Some teachers are feeling a need to address the importance of verbal communication to teens who eventually plan to enter the working world.

Driving According to the National Institutes of Health website, 43 percent of U.S. high school students text while driving. What many teens do not take into consideration when texting and driving is that engaging in this behavior makes them 23 times more likely to become involved in an automobile crash. These statistics lead some experts to suggest that texting while driving results in more accidents than drunk driving.

The Possibilities It is undeniable that text messaging affords a teenager an easy and quick way to stay in contact with her friends 24/7. And, despite the lack of face-to-face social interaction, texting may actually be beneficial for a teen who lacks certain social skills. In fact, the Baylor College of Medicine website explains that for a teen that is shy or more introverted than her peers, texting serves as a more comfortable way to express feelings without having to talk with another person one-on-one.

Despite the surge in communication through technology, many teens still report that their favorite way to connect with peers is through face to face communication.

"Some teens think there is a trade-off between social media use and face-to-face
 communication. A third of teens (34%) agree either strongly or somewhat that using social
media takes away from time they could be spending with people face-to-face, and 44% agree at
least "somewhat" that using social media often distracts them from the people they're with
when they do get together in person"[18]

Many teens label themselves and others as "addicted" to social media and express a desire to disconnect at times. This is especially apparent with those experiencing some kind of harassment through social networks, email or texts. In addition teens have also reported feeling frustrated with friends and family members who spend time on their phones rather then the person in the room with them. It seems the social skills and interpersonal relationships of teens are being significantly effected by this technological obsession.

Texting for some has led to teens being more uncomfortable with face to face encounters. Educationally this is effecting the development of writing skills. Part of the culture of texting, emails and social networks are the uses of short hand language and improper grammar. The manner and tone of written messages are very casual, it's a concern of employers that incoming potential hires will not have the writing capabilities of past generations.

Some positive aspects also exist, for some teens they feel the internet gives them a gateway to communicate with others, where before they may not have. It should also be noted that social networks are excellent tools to stay connected with friends and family not living in close proximity to you.

The biggest change needs to come from the teens themselves, they need to self regulate but there are things that can assist them in doing so and guide them on proper use of such technologies. Teens themselves can hold each other responsible by monitoring friends activities or deactivating certain accounts for a while.

Parental guidance and support is vital, just as would be expected with other aspects of childhood development. Rules at home, and perhaps time limits on usage would help encourage teens to get involved with other activities.

With in the school systems strict regulations would help by preventing teens the access to certain technologies. There are certain devices only allow emergency calls when some one is driving, these same devices could prove beneficial in schools. Along with stronger firewalls on school and personal computers while logged in the schools network and blocking any site that is no related to school. To add to this, teachers from Computer, Health, Sociology, Psychology and English classes should take the new challenges of their students into account when building a lesson plan for the semester.

Lastly many smart phones already have a built in spell and grammar check, by applying these application to all phones teens, as well as others, will be more inclined to use correct spelling and grammar.