Daily text messaging among teenagers seems to be growing at breakneck speed, says a new survey from the Pew Internet & American Life project.
According to the survey, which was released last week, the percentage of 12- to 17-year-olds who text every day grew from 38 percent in February 2008 to 54 percent in September 2009. Half those young people send 50 or more messages a day.
“Text messaging has become the primary way that teens reach their friends,” the Pew researchers write, “surpassing face-to-face contact, e-mail, instant messaging, and voice calling as the go-to daily communication tool for this age group.”
The biggest texters are 14- to 17-year-old girls, who send an average of 100 messages a day, according to the survey. Younger teenage boys send the fewest text messages.
The results are drawn from a nationally representative sample of 800 teenagers, as well as conversations with nine focus groups around the country. The project is run by the Pew Research Center in Washington.
