

A study from the University of Winnipeg suggests that students who text that much are 30 per cent less likely to feel strongly that leading an "ethical, principled life" was important to them, compared to those who text 50 times or less a day.






"There may be changes in the culture that people are slightly less reflective than they used to be, but overall, that may not be a bad thing," Trapnell said Friday. "We don’t know yet."

Testing theory from The Shallows

The study was done to test the "shallowing hypothesis" described in Nicholas Carr's 2010 book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.

According to the theory, the heavy use of texting and Twitter — both ultra-brief social media technologies — has made people's thought processes more superficial because it encourages rapid and relatively shallow thinking.

"The values and traits most closely associated with texting frequency are surprisingly consistent with Carr's conjecture that new information and social media technologies may be displacing and discouraging reflective thought," Trapnell stated in a news release.


Trapnell and Sinclair also carried out a laboratory study in which some students texted, some spoke on their cellphones and some did neither.


Despite their findings, Trapnell and Sinclair don't see any reason to panic right now about a "morally shallow" generation, saying heavy texting and social media use by young adults in the so-called "digital native" generation hasn't stopped them from being as "tolerant and accepting of human diversity" as past generations.