Who says teens don't communicate?
They do. They just don't do it out loud.
The Neilson Company analyzed mobile usage data among teens in the United States for the second quarter of 2010 (April 2010 - June 2010), using data from monthly cell phone bills of more than 60,000 mobile subscribers and well as survey data from over 3,000 teens and discovered American teens between the ages of 13 and 18 send and receive and average of 3,339 texts a month. That's about six for every hour they're awake.
If your head is spinning, you may want to sit down. Teen boys apparently send and receive an impressive 2,539 texts a month, but the report reveals teen girls are almost twice as busy, sending and receiving an average of 4,050 texts per month.
Over FOUR THOUSAND texts.
PER MONTH.
Young adults ages 18 to 24 come in a distant second, exchanging a quaint 1,630 texts per month. That's about three texts per hour.
While the numbers are staggering, they're not surprising.
People love to text. Some might argue that we're addicted. We do it everywhere, all day long - at work, at school, at church, at the beach, in the woods, in restaurants, in stores, while we're crossing the street at busy intersections.
We even do it while we're driving. DRIVING! Cars! At high speeds!
And when several states tried to crack down on texting-and-driving, assuming it would cut down on car accidents, we actually got into MORE accidents because we were still texting, but doing so on the sly.
We can't stop.
In fact, the number one reason why teens want and get cell phones is so they can text. And they want to text because they say it's "fun."
And it kind of is.
Texts are a quiet, portable, instant gratification way to talk to friends. You don't have to pause the video game you're playing or TV show you're watching to stay in a conversation, and you don't have to sit at your computer.
Despite lighter and smaller laptops, teens still prefer to us their phones to communicate, which explains why the first thing they look for in a cell phone is a QWERTY keyboard.
The popularity of texting has made simply talking on the phone almost as outdated as the rotary dial. ("The what?" asks the 14-year-old you sent this article to.)
Voice activity is down 14 percent among teens, who average about 646 minutes of talk time a month. Teen girls talk more than teen boys; 753 minutes vs. 525 minutes.
The only group that makes fewer phone calls than teens is adults 55 and over. What are they doing, writing letters? ("Writing what?")
Along with texting, teens love all the multimedia abilities their phones provide and their data usage proves it.
While data usage in teens does not reach levels of activity seen by young adults, it has increased substantially versus Q2 last year, from 14 MB to 62 MB.
This fourfold increase is the largest jump among all age groups. Much of this boost is led by teen boys, who are more gadget-savvy and consume 75 MB of data, versus 17 MB in Q2 last year. Teen girls use about 53 MB of data, compared to 11 MB a year ago.
Teens are not only using more data, but they are also downloading a wider range of applications.
Software downloads among teen subscribers who use apps jumped
from 26 to 38 percent. This includes popular apps such as Facebook, Pandora or
YouTube.
Usage of the mobile web has also surpassed activity on pre-installed games, ringtone downloads and instant messaging, too. Other mobile activities like mail and text alerts have also seen significant growth.
