Nation of Texters: A Third of People Prefer a Text to Talking

(Comstock)

A new poll from the Pew Research Center asked Americans about how they use their phone, and in particular, their phone’s non-voice features. They got predictable but still staggering results about sending and receiving text messages, especially from the younger demographic.  The summary states:

Some 83% of American adults own cell phones and three-quarters of them (73%) send and receive text messages. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project asked those texters in a survey how they prefer to be contacted on their cell phone and 31% said they preferred texts to talking on the phone, while 53% said they preferred a voice call to a text message. Another 14% said the contact method they prefer depends on the situation.

Unsurprisingly, young adults are the most prolific texters, and though this might be widely known, the sheer number of texts they send is still surprising.  Cell phone owners between the ages of 18 and 24 exchange an average of 109.5 messages on a normal day.  This is more than double the figure for 25 – 34 year-olds, and 23 times the figure for texters that are 65 and over.