<p>"A rise in boys and older teens texting has pushed the average number of text messages American youngsters send to 60 a day, ten more than in 2009.</p>
<p>That means the average American teenager awake from 7am until 10pm sends a text every 15 minutes. The survey by Pew Research quizzed 799 UA teens aged between 12 and 17 about their mobile phone habits and the results show that texting has become the dominant mode of communication for the under 18s. ...</p>
<p>... The boom was fuelled by a big increase in 14- to 17-year-old girls texting, the researchers found, with the average teenage girl in this older age bracket now sending 100 texts a day, up from 60 three years ago.</p>
<p>Boys aged between 14 and 17 sent half that number, 50 a day, but it was still a significant increase from the 30 a day they sent in 2009. ...</p>
<p>... Fourteen per cent of all teens quizzed said they talk daily with friends on a landline, down from 30 per cent who said so in 2009. Social network messaging (29 per cent daily) and other forms of instant messaging (22 per cent daily) were the next most popular forms for teenage communication.</p>
<p>Only 6 per cent of teenagers sent emails to their friends on a daily basis. ..."</p>
<p>Parents, do you see your teens trending like this, especially your teen girls?</p>
<p>considering my daughter sends text that say, “Yeah.” or “Not much.” Or “sup?” It’s more like a 60 word texting frenzy. :p</p>
<p>No, I really think if you are texting with four or five people, it’s not really all that much, anyway.</p>
<p>I think they like texting. 1. because it’s private. 2. because if you send a text, the person doesn’t have to answer right away. 3. because nobody picks up the phone anymore, anyway. It’s easier to text than leave a message.</p>
<p>These days I’m shocked to speak to a live person, ever. Even my friends and i text each other, these days.</p>
<p>I’d have to check my kids text records, but most of the ones I get from D2 are: kk; home; need milk; leaving now. And a lot of the texts that are sent to friends are sent to a group at a time, so does her 1 text to 5 people count as 5 texts? I don’t think 60 texts a day is a frenzy. Beats sitting in a closet for an hour with the only home phone (without call waiting!) like back in my day with my mom yelling at me to hang up ;)</p>
<p>It’s quiet, so it doesn’t disturb others around you. (Ever complained about someone yammering on a cell phone in a waiting room, bus, or whatever? Suppose the person had been texting–wouldn’t that have been less disturbing to you?)</p>
<p>It’s private, so it’s possible to communicate things that could be awkward. (The first thing we did when our kids got cell phones was to add a “quick text” option where they could text us “come get me now” by just pressing a couple of keys. Were you ever at a party or in a situation as a teen where you would have loved for your parents to rescue you but felt embarrassed or awkward about it?)</p>
<p>It’s asynchronous, so I can send my daughter a question when it’s 2 am where she is (abroad), and she can answer it in the morning. Could I do this on email? Sure, but I know she has her phone in her pocket all the time, and it’s not a smart phone that pushes her email. </p>
<p>If someone had counted every sentence I exchanged by phone with friends when I was a teen, I’m sure the number would have exceeded 60/day. I honestly don’t see this as the decline of civilization.</p>
<p>add to kk and leaving now . . .
pick? - out back - done - ice cream? - ride? - bring bag - etc. - walking home</p>
<p>I dropped our home phone service, reduced our cell minutes to the lowest plan and added unlimited family texting because that’s how everyone communicates when not in person. It’s funny, though, DD texts, facebook chats and skypes with bff, but they don’t talk on the phone. D also texts me from her bedroom rather than yelling out like we used to do as kids.</p>
Isn’t that from a Doonesbury comic strip? (She proposes via text)</p>
<p>My wife always calls and leaves a voicemail for our sons no matter how many times I tell her they never listen to voicemail. I then send a text and get a reply in minutes.</p>
<p>I communicate a lot on Twitter, which is more or less texting. I don’t think 60 a day sounds like very much! I HATE having to pick up voice messages on my cell.</p>
<p>It’s really a meaningless article, as unlimited data plans are more common now than in 2009. And as more kids have them, more text messages get sent. Like others already mentioned, a text message can be as short as one character such as “k” for “okay.”</p>