If you thought that young Americans in the 18-24 age grouping like to text, a better description may be love to text.
New data is out from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, showing that 95 percent of young adults engage the texting option on their cell phones. On a typical day, they send and get in return nearly 110 texts a day, while the median user reaches 40 a day. In terms of the median for all cell phone users, the figure is 10 a day.
Digging further down into the research, one in 10 younger adults reports they exchange more than 200 messages a day.
Some other data from the survey shows:
- Eighty-three percent of American adults own cell phones and nearly three quarters of them (73 percent) send and get text messages;
- Thirty-one percent indicate they prefer texts to chatting on the phone, while 53 percent note their preference is a voice call over a text message;
- Fourteen percent of those surveyed indicate the contact method they prefer is dependent upon the situation;
- If a young adult is exchanging an average of 109.5 messages daily, that comes out to greater than 3,200 texts monthly.
The survey also discovered that ethnic minorities continue to show signs of more mobile activity than other groups.
African-Americans and Hispanics, as an example, exchange 70 and 49 text messages a day, respectively compared to approximately 31 for whites. Smartphone users and those at the lower end of the income and education bracket also text more often.
According to a Pew spokesperson, a key to the on-going popularity of text messaging, however, is its standardization across devices, networks and operating systems. He points out, “Interoperability has a lot to do with it — anyone with a phone can text anyone else without worrying whether or not the person they are trying to reach is on the same service — as does the fact that you can text from pretty much any type of cell phone. After all, fewer than half of cell owners have smartphones, but even people on more basic phones can text-even if they don’t have access to some other tools you mentioned.”
Making It a Business to Text
While much of the texting between young adults is likely personal in nature, can businesses get in on this large volume of message exchanging?
For the smart business owners, there are opportunities to market to young adults and many others for that matter who love texting.
Let’s say you operate a restaurant, clothing store, movie theater etc. texting out reminders about upcoming events and/or offering discounts is a great way to maintain and add business. Once someone has agreed to let you contact them, texting messages, coupons etc. can prove really beneficial.
Given that texting will only likely increase in popularity, the business owner who can text current and potential customers without crossing the line of being a spammer could like the message they receive in return.
Photo credit: mobilemarketer.com
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Twitter: BlazingMinds
I think I have a love affair with my BlackBerry
Karen recently blogged..Why I Opted To Upgrade And Use CommentLuv Premium
Twitter: Newstouse
Karen,
I’m waiting for a lawsuit when someone texting and not paying attention trips and falls or gets hit by a vehicle, etc. Seems like it is only a matter of time. Maybe some technology guru will come up with a machine people can put around their head and text looking straight forward instead of down, lol.
Twitter: money_whisper
It seems that hands free isn’t helpful anymore if people are texting more than speaking on the phone. I prefer to have a conversation of one minute rather than to write 10 messages in order to be able to say all those words. It is a time waste from my point of view and is clear that teenagers have too much of it these days
Twitter: davelucas
You’re right, Karen — it’s not just “the kids” — everybody’s texting these days!
Dave Lucas recently blogged..Political Perception = Clout (dofollow)
Twitter: chattanoogaseo
I guess I’m way below the average. I don’t text that much in any sense of conversation anyway. Maybe, I’m just not good at multitasking or I have my hand wrapped around a beer.
donnie recently blogged..SEO Packages for Small Business (dofollow)
So true. Seems like these days, every time I look up, everyone else is looking down into their mobile devices texting away. It is hard to converse face to face as everyone’s too busy conversing screen to screen!
Jean recently blogged..Detailed explanation of temperature’s effects on used tires (dofollow)
Jean, that too devices like iphone has made the job very easy… lol. Looks like iphone 5 is going to have voice recognition. Now we can talk and it will automatically get convererted to text. Wow….
Twitter: ronniedare
Thanks for the insights about the texting thing. We are already at the mobile age so this kind of love affair with texting will seriously shoot up. And another thing is, this kind of stats of texting usage can be useful for marketers as well (in a good way though).
RonLeyba recently blogged..Dress Up Games For Girls Who Love Fashion (dofollow)
It’s different here in the Philippines. Most active texters here are teens. I don’t text much these days. I visited my text counter and my sent messages in one day is only 300-400. While teens can reach up to a thousand a day. This is due to unlimited texting package from our Telecomm providers. And FOI, Phillipines is the text capital of the world.
I also prefers text mostly like 41% of American do but it really depends upon situation because sometimes its very rear that MSG left in air and can,t reach to exact number. that is why whenever i had any important task than i prefer phone.
Where I’m from, texting for ALL AGES is the norm. It’s been like this for years and yes, the companies have long figured out how to do their advertising via texting!
Let me just say that it is the most annoying form of advertising because the messages bother you throughout the day. And they also charge you money for sending that text message to you which you didn’t want in the first place.
It has to be accepted for sure. I have unlimited text plan and at least make few hundreds of texts every month. It is real quick and helpful.
It need not be like that. I am in the US and all my fellow friends are crazy about text !!
Twitter: Newstouse
To show times have changed, my generation used to pass notes around during school classes. If they were confiscated by teachers, they got thrown out. What happens now if you’re caught texting in class?
Twitter: amabaie
The generation gap rears its ugly head once more. I don’t text, I don’t want to text, I rarely use my cell phone (which I usually forget to bring with me anyway). Texting is for gossip and teeheeing, not for sharing information. As you get older, teeheeing loses much of its appeal.
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I’m wondering if 95% of young adults who own a mobile phone send and receive text messages, what is going on with the other 5%? Don’t they have anybody to text? Should we start an event where that 5% can meet eachother and afterwards they can text eachother.
Btw. I think in general men choose texting over talking on the phone, and women the other way around. I know I do.
Btw. text message marketing is horrible. My network provider sends me like 4 advertisement texts a day. Like I’m not paying them enough already. And worst but understandable, it’s all in Chinese so I have no clue what great deals they are offering me.
If they send me one every once in a while I might get someone to translate it, because I don’t want to miss out on a good deal. But this is just too much.
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