If you’re an American and you’ve noticed that you’re texting more than you’ve been calling your friends then you’re part of the rising number of Americans who are beginning to prefer to text people rather than call them.

Based on a study made by Pew Internet, nearly thirty-one percent of Americans now prefer to communicate with their friends and relatives through text messages using their mobile phones instead of calling them up and speaking to them over the phone. The group that has the most prevalent use of text messages is the youth, which average about 110 text messages a day. The median for the same group was pegged at 50 text messages daily. Ten percent of people between the ages of 18 to 24 have been reported to send or receive about 200 text messages daily. The next age group, people between the ages of 25 to 34, have an average of about 42 text messages a day. Succeeding age groups show decrease in the number of daily text messages as they grow older, with the oldest group – the ones from 65 years old and older – average about 5 text messages a day.

One of the reasons text messages is on the rise is its apparent immediacy. Small text messages to socialize with friends is something that is most common among the youth and a phone call is just too much compared to just simple text message. Communication that is being broken down into small fragments seem to be reflective of the way communication and socialization works in an internet age where everyone is virtually connected, and text messaging is just one manifestation of this.

Originally posted on September 20, 2011 @ 10:51 am