Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Barton, Michelle

Keywords

Communication, Cell Phone, Mobile Phone, Calling, Texting, Close Relationships, Communicate

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

The calling and texting behaviors of college students were studied using information about the participants' communication partners, age and sex demographics, and reasons for communication mode choice. Additionally, an examination of the validity of self-reported communication data was conducted via comparisons with actual calling and texting logs. Students completed a survey asking about their perceived communication with four close relationship partners (parent, sibling, intimate partner, and best friend). Also, the survey collected data on the age and sex of both interlocutors, the physical distance between them, and reasons why the participant would choose to call vs text, or text vs call. Then, actual calling and texting logs from the participant's cell phone were recorded. Main effects of partner type and mode type indicated intimate partners to have the highest frequency of communication and texting to be the primary mode of communication. Age of parents was positively correlated with the frequency of calling. The validity of self-report data was inconclusive. These findings suggest that new advances in technology are changing the way we choose to communicate and those choices are possibly influenced by whom a person wants to contact.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida Libraries, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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