'Text Me!"

I got my first cell phone the day I got my driver's license.  It was a clunky, walkie-talkie type contraption and the digital screen was only 2 colors.  It was "only for emergencies," which granted didn't last long as I soon discovered the perks of being able to speak to my friends out of earshot of my family.  But I didn't send my first text message until I was a sophomore in college.  Yes, I remember the day when cell phones were just that.  Phones.  Used for voice-to-voice communication between people.  In 2011, it is rare to see people who only use their cell phones for making and receiving calls.  Texting is all the rage, and certainly has its perks: speed, secretiveness, and the ability to avoid making or taking those unwanted calls by simply replacing an answer with a text message.  We are all guilty of a little bit of reliance on text messaging regardless of our age, but according to a recent study by Princeton Survey Research International, one demographic in particular takes the virtual cake when it comes to text messaging.

Teenage girls aged 14-17, according to the study, by far and away lead the pack in terms of daily text messaging, averaging over 100 text messages per day!  Their male counterparts averaged lowest among the groups studied, coming in at only about 20 text messages a day.  Twenty text messages per day might sound like a drop in the ocean compared to the 100 teenage girls are sending, but when you take into consideration that just a few years ago text messaging didn't even exist, it seems daunting to think how quickly the way the world communicates can change.  As a sophomore in college just a few years ago, it was rare to send 20 text messages in a month!

The Pew Research Center, the leading source of research on social trends in America, published some astonishing statistics recently.  They found that 75% of teens aged 12-17 had cell phones in 2010, up from only 45% in 2004.  This fact in particular is indicative of the drastic change in the way teens are communicating just over the last handful of years.  Pew found that texting has surpassed face-to-face contact, email, instant messaging and phone calls as the most common way teens communicate with one another, but found that they still communicate with their parents primarily via voice calls.

Recalling the conversations I had with my friends on my cell phone because my parents couldn't hear me, I can only imagine the things teens today must be texting about.  They are able to sit in the same room as their parents and still conduct private, silent teenage conversations.  As a potential future parent, the prospect of keeping my teenagers under control with so little idea what they discuss with their friends promises to be a challenge.

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Teens-and-Mobile-Phones.aspx

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126117811