Text Messaging Use Rising Still

Teen girls 14-17 are the leaders of the pack, averaging 100 messages a day. That’s an average. Think about that for a second. That is not some extreme example of one kid who texts 3,000 texts a month. That’s the average!

The Pew Internet and Life Project came out with a brand new study just yesterday with some of these updated numbers. It seems that every time we turn around a new report is released on text messaging, texing-and-driving, or sexting. David, in this week’s Youth Culture Window article, focused on the problem of sexting, sharing some personal experience helping kids and educators in his own community deal with the problem.

This new Pew study gives a pretty good summary of just how popular texting is at the moment, and who’s doing it:

Here’s a snippet:

• 31% of teens send and receive more than 100 messages per day, or more than 3,000 messages a month.
• 15% of teens who are texters send more than 200 texts a day, or more than 6,000 texts a month.
• Boys typically send and receive 30 texts a day; girls typically send and receive 80 messages per day.
• Older girls who text are the most active, with 14-17 year-old girls typically sending 100 or more mes­sages a day, or more than 3,000 texts a month.
• While many teens are avid texters, a notable minority are not. One-fifth of teen texters (22%) send and receive just 1-10 texts a day, or 30-300 a month.

The report goes into further detail about some of the struggles parents have with their kids and cell phones, calling cell phones a “mixed blessing.” Cell phones make their lives safer and more convenient, yet also provide new tensions.

Click here to download the whole study.