Pew Internet: People Who Text A Lot Also Make a Lot of Voice Calls
Pew Internet surveyed 2,277 adults in the U.S. to learn about their text message and voice call behavior. The results are probably not surprising to those who have been following mobile communications trends. But, the findings are still enlightening.
Americans and Text Messaging
In comparing text messaging from surveys in Fall 2009, Spring 2010 and Spring 2011, there was a significant spike in the mean number of text messages send between Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 with a smaller increase from Spring 2010 to Spring 2011. Young people (18 to 24 years old) sent and received a thumb numbing average of 109.5 text messages per day. As you might expect, the average number of text messages sent and received per day drops dramatically with age. Those 35 to 44 years old sent or received a mere, comparatively speaking, 25.9 text messages per day.
The mean number of voice calls saw a small drop between Spring 2010 and Spring 2011 (13.1 to 12.3). The median number of calls was flat between these two survey periods (5 calls per day). Pew Internet found a high correlation between text messaging and voice call behavior. People who text a lot also speak a lot (in terms of numbers of calls) on their phone.
