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Nielsen
A recent report shows teens who text and surf the Web using their smartphones have tripled their data usage in the past year, with young women the most likely to let their fingers do the talking, sending and receiving nearly 4,000 messages a month on average.
Nielsen's latest analysis reveals the ascendancy of teens into what the tracking firm labels the "mobile Data Tsunami," or the rapid growth of data consumption by U.S. smartphone users with the emergence of unlimited plans amid a social media-addicted society. Teens hold a formidable place as "the leading message senders," in these polls of more than 65,000 mobile subscribers who volunteered for the studies and ponied up their monthly cellphone bills.
The latest information about teens in particular give weight to anecdotal evidence of heavy texting. (For example, my friends have told me more than a few times about how rampant text messaging is among their early teen children, from dawn to well after dusk.) In the third quarter of 2011, teens ages 13-17 used an average of 320 MB of data per month, which is an increase of 256 percent from the same point last year — growing at a rate faster than any other age group.
Nielsen
While Nielsen finds much of this comes at the hands of teen boys, who took in 382 MB per month (vs. their female counterparts' 266 MB), teen girls are on top when it comes to messaging, with 3,952 messages per month vs. boys' 2,815. (The average per teen is 3,417.)
A year ago, Pew came out with a report showing a similar preoccupation with texting, finding that the average teen sends and receives 3,339 texts a month.
Besides messaging, teens are also consuming data on their phones for Internet browsing, social networking, email, app downloads, and app use.
What they aren't using their phones for: making voice calls. "Voice usage has declined the most among this group, from an average of 685 minutes to 572 minutes. When surveyed, the top three reasons teens said that they prefer messaging to calling was because it is faster (22 percent), easier (21 percent), and more fun (18 percent)."
Given the distraction phones — especially smartphones — are to this particular age group, safety advocates have laid on the pressure to curb teens from texting while driving, and there are plenty of apps out there that can help parents prevent the two from mixing. But in the past, teens have pegged drinking and driving as much more dangerous than texting and driving.
More stories:
- Average American teen sends and receives 3,339 texts a month
- Nielsen: Android users are on Facebook ... a lot
- Game consoles increasingly used for streaming video
- Teens texting bring back languages from the edge of extinction
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I don't think it's any suprise that texting is most popular amongst young women. Note passing was mostly a female thing while I was in school and this is just electronic note passing.
Slow day huh?
This explains why grammar and spelling skills worsen with every group of new students I see in my classes.
It doesn't surprise me. I hope all these parents smartened up and got their daughters a texting plan on their cellphone, or they are in for a huuuugeee bill.
Putting a text plan of their phone is not smarting up. Calling the carrier and having text messaging disabled entirely would be smarting up.
A texting plan? How about they get them a glass of get off the damn phone.
This is a bunch of crap!!! What is so friggin' important that you need to text that damn much? If they'd expend that much time on their schooling the test scores wouldn't be in the crapper.
I hope they don't text while driving, although with those number it looks like they are.
Why do males pay more for auto insurance again?
The numbers show young men have more accidents... I don't agree with that. I say take the phones and let them wait for after school...
I agree, I am just baffled at why schools allow any phones, on or off, in the classrooms. Add mp3 players to that also.
It sounds like a lot, but if you do the math, its actually fairly easy to do...
Thats about 130 a day. which would mean they could have sent 65, and received 65. Which really isnt very hard to do, and wouldnt take very long... Youd be surprised how easily you can hit 100 text message (sent and received) in one day...
I will say though,. I dont think Ive ever hit anywhere near 4k. I can send 100 a day easily, but I dont do it daily...
girls gossip... wow i didn't know that until i read this article. O_o
Ha! It seems the need for blah, blah, blahing starts fairly early.
How many of those 4000 texts were while they were driving?
If you are following a car that the driver is texting in you don't have to be told what they are doing no matter what age they are.
That's a lot of texting... I don't think I've sent 4,000 texts in my entire lifetime.
I've yet to send one text. The keys are way too small, the lettering is almost unreadable (bifocals don't help). Having two fat thumbs and lousy hand / eye co-ordination make things worse. When a keypad is the size of a PC keyboard, I'll give texting a try.
We will see the affects of this in the years to come as people are increasingly distancing themselves from the rest of society. This is not a good thing - and to the parents that allow their teen and preteen children have smart phones, shame on you! If they can't pay for it themselves, then they don't need it.
Not surprising, the three ways of news getting around may not be telephone and telegraph any more but tell a woman is still in there. And given the facts that girls are women in training and that a text is not that far removed from a telegraph,it was a match made in heaven and,rather less than unexpected.
Assuming girls sleep 8 hours a day, (and hopefully don't text in their sleep), then the average teenage girl is texting once every 7 minutes of every waking hour.
(130 texts a day!)
Text messaging as a primary method of communicating is ridiculous. Today's youth are not learning proper interpersonal communication skills because parents allow this type of behavior. Face to face communication is best for teens to develop communication skills and when that is not possible the phone is a much better alternative. Take a few minutes out of your "busy" day and call you friend, give them your full attention and have a proper conversation. This generation is going to be lacking the communication skills needed in most workplaces and functional adult life if they continue to impersonalize their interpersonal communications.
I will not pay for a text plan for the teen in my home. I tell him we have a home phone line that I pay the bill for monthly that he is more then welcome to use to call people. I refuse to pay $20 a month or 10 cents a message to enable the development of poor communication and social skills. I do not use text messaging myself.
Allowing teens to have text messaging on phones also enables the behavior many people are mentioning here of texing and driving. Why as a parent would you want to have this risk, its like leaving the liquor cabinet unlocked. Teens are kids, they are going to push the limits. Most also do not consider there own mortality at this stage of life. Parents are supposed to help teens make good choices, build life skills, and learn responsibility. 4k text messages a month is not a step in the right direction. It is detached and lazy parenting.
The teacher who posted that spelling and grammar skills are declining with every new class is also bringing up a very good point.
You will soon encounter people who are offended if you won't communicate their way.
And most cell companies in the U.S. see that data usage going up so of course they decide to curb data at higher cost rates and get rid of unlimited data plans
That really has nothing to do with text messaging. Text uses very little data. The data they are talking about is using the internet on a smartphone... Thats why unlimited data plans are disappearing. Sprint still has theirs though... and has gained numerous people because of it...
I can see it now...20 years from now, 87% of all adults suffer from chronic carpal tunnel in their thumbs, do NOT know how to spell or use proper grammar, their off-spring are mostly born deaf-mutes with a texting device in their hands instead of rattle toys, nearly everyone has to have glasses from watching video on tiny screens for years, most everyone will not know how to greet one another anywhere in public, and those same people will expect everything to be handed to them without working for it.
...wow, it that the definition of utopia of the future?