Interpersonal Adaptation Theory: Deceptive Communication in Text Messages

Sample

In 1973, Martin Cooper was the first person to use a cellular phone to make a public phone call (Shields, 2003). In 2003, at the age of 73, Cooper was still in the cell phone business as co-founder and CEO of ArrayComm, a company that makes software allowing mobile service carriers to increase call volume within their networks (Shields, 2003). Now called “the father of cell phones,” Cooper himself says that he could not have foreseen the growth of cell phones from his original brick sized phone to the small flip phone he was photographed using in the interview. Since that interview in 2003, how individuals use cell phones has changed even more drastically. Cell phones have gone from simply being small portable phones to being portable computers. One of the biggest changes to date has been the influx of text messaging. Texting has now surpassed calling as the main use of the cell phone. It would be a safe bet that everyone reading this book will have sent or received a text message at some point before you have even completed the chapter. This is because text messaging has become the dominant form of communication for cell phone users of all ages, and the increase of text messages being sent year after year shows that this practice does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon.