Study: Teens Prefer Texting to Phone Calls

Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, teens will be flummoxed when it comes to how to make a phone call. That's because there's more texting going on than ever, while voice calling continues to decline, says a new report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project.

Three-quarters of teens use text messaging, Pew says (it's a little surprising the figure isn't higher), and the "volume of texting among teens has risen from 50 texts a day in 2009 to 60 texts for the median teen text user" in 2011, said Pew in "Teens, Smartphones and Texting," which looks at changes in teens' communication habits over the last five years, with a focus on mobile devices.

Pew reports: "Much of this increase occurred among older teens ages 14-17, who went from a median of 60 texts a day to a median of 100 two years later. Boys of all ages also increased their texting volume from a median of 30 texts daily in 2009 to 50 texts in 2011. Black teens showed an increase of a median of 60 texts per day to 80."

While 63 percent of teens say they exchange text messages every day, only 39 percent actually use their phones for voice calling. Only 14 percent of all teens say they talk daily with friends on a landline, down from 30 percent who said so in 2009.  Nearly a third (31 percent) of teens say they never talk on a landline with friends (or report that they cannot do so).

Source: MSNBC
http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/teens-texting-voice-calling-down-report-484645