Texting By Age Group

Text messaging has outpaced voice calling as the pre-eminent means of communication on mobile devices. Accoring to Nielsen in Q1 2009, the average US mobile subscriber sent or received 486 text messages per month but made just 182 calls.

Does this mean my parents text more than call?  Nielsen data shows that heavy texting is not uniform across all mobile users, further users ages 13 to 24 text disproportionately more than those
in other age groups.

Ages 13-to-17-year-olds sent and received more than three times as many texts on a monthly basis as the next group of texters, those users ages 18 to 24, and over 50 times as many as the least active texters, those ages 55 to 64.   I guess I can start to expect “why haven’t you text me?” at Sunday dinners.

 Jason Brennan is a partner at Stream Companies in Malvern, PA