“OMG teens txt 2 much!”While this statement may seem obvious and simple, a new report released April 20, by the Pew Internet and American Life Project reveals the numbers, which are quite staggering. Text messaging has become the number one method that teens use for basic communication with their friends, while cell calling is a close second. In fact, 72 percent of all teens age 12-17 send text messages, an increase of about 30 percent since 2004.
The interesting point though, is not just that teens use texting messaging, but the frequency in which they send texts. The average teen sends and receives 50 texts a day, 1500 texts a month. Even more impressive is that 14 percent of teens claim to send between 100-200 texts per day and an additional 14 percent claim to send over 200 text messages daily.
Just who are all of these texts going to? Eighty-two percent of texting teens send messages to their friends at least once a day and 48 percent text their parents at least once a day.
Age plays a large role in teen texting. Middle school is when teen texting really begins to sky-rocket, roughly six in every 10 teens owned a cell phone by age 14. Also, 46% of 12 year-olds do not text but 54% of 14 year-olds text on a daily basis.
While teens love to text and use their cell phones, it doesn’t seem like they want to take responsibility for paying for it. Only 10 percent of teens have their own individual contact while 69% are part of a family plan. Furthermore, only 29 percent contribute any money toward the cost of the service.
There are some dangers to the frequency teen text use. Cell phone use while driving is a top concern an 52 percent of teen admit to talking on their cell phones while driving and a another 34 percent text and drive. Also 54 percent of teens report receiving unsolicited spam text messages and 15 percent claim to have received a sext.
By Jared Pass and Chelsea Leposa, Group 36, Technically Philly
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