Texting teens have gone messaging mad

by Stevie Smith - Apr 20 2010, 06:40

Wander through any busy mall or along any bustling high street, you don’t really need study findings to confirm that teenagers seemingly spend most of their time tapping out text messages on mobile phones. But, that being said, we have some numbers to throw at you anyway.

Specifically, a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has revealed that the widespread availability of cheaper data plans has increased the appeal of mobile phones amongst younger consumers and has propelled texting beyond the growth rates attributed to e-mail and wireless calls.

This, in turn, has led to high-school students (particularly girls) sending and receiving up to 100 text messages every day, while 54 percent of American children aged between 12 and 17 now actively use text messaging on a daily basis to contact friends – twice as many as in 2006.

“Texting is the form of communication that has grown the most for teens during the last four years,” the study outlines, adding that “the percentage of teens who use texting to contact friends outside of school on a daily basis has gone from 27 to 54 percent.”

“Face-to-face contact, instant messaging, mobile voice and social network messaging have remained flat during the same period, while the use of e-mail and the landline phone have decreased slightly,” the study adds.

Other figures suggest that approximately 75 percent of all U.S. teens now have a mobile phone – a sizeable leap from the 30 percent in 2004 – while 83 percent of those devices are regularly used to snap photographs, 60 percent are used as music players, and 46 percent host videogames.

The “Teens and Mobile Phone” study, which was carried out across 800 teenagers and their parents, also claims girls aged between 14 and 17 are the most prolific users when it comes to sending and receiving text messages, with 100 per day equating to twice the amount of all other teens polled.

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