Love is in the Air: Romantic Relationships and Text Messaging A Descriptive Study of Relationships Formed Through Text Messaging Among Selected Adolescents in Metro Manila and Cavite

Abstract

Socially interactive technologies (SIT) have been redefining the generation’s social networks in the past years. Notably apparent is the increasing prevalence of the use of mobile phones particularly for sending short message service (SMS) or more commonly known as text messaging. Forming romantic relationship through text messaging is an emerging trend among the adolescents. This study aimed to describe the kinds of intimacy formed through text messaging by describing and exploring the circumstances how these relationships started through text messaging. This paper will also provide the respondent’s personal assessment of the relationships formed through text messaging. The data obtained in the study showed that individuals who form relationship through text messaging spend a great part of their day sending text messages to friends and text mates. Their relationship with their family and friends affect their texting practices. The unlimited texting service introduced by cellular service providers prompted the individuals to use text messaging as a socialization tool. They used text messaging to form, sustain, and terminate relationships. However, most of them asserted that relationships formed via face-to-face interaction is better and is more likely to last. A good way of making text-formed relationships work is by complementing it with offline interaction.