Teens Prefer Text To Talk

Teenagers would rather uses SMS text messaging to relay the latest gossip among friends, but when it comes to their parents, they prefer to make voice calls, a study shows.

Text messaging has become the primary way teens communicate with friends, surpassing face-to-face contact, e-mail, instant messaging and voice calling, a survey released Tuesday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project showed. But talking to parents typically involved calling them on a mobile phone, with 68% of teens calling their mom or dad at least once a day.

More than half of the 800 U.S. teenagers surveyed said they text on a daily basis to socialize and to chat with friends. Girls from 14 to 17 years old were the texting leaders, averaging 100 messages a day. The youngest teenage boys were the least likely to text, averaging 20 messages a day.

Overall, half of teens sent 50 or more messages each day, or 1,500 a month, while one in three averaged more than 100 texts a day, or 3,000 a month.

Since the last survey conducted by Pew in February 2008, daily text messaging has soared among teens. In the previous study, 38% of teens sent texts daily, compared to 54% in the latest survey conducted in September 2009.

The mobile phone has become an essential communication tool for most teens. Pew found that 75% of 12- to 17-year-olds own a cellular phone, up from 45% in 2004.

While most texting by teenagers and adults is done safely, texting while driving has become a serious problem. In an attempt to avoid accidents caused by messaging motorists, 14 states and the District of Columbia have laws banning texting while operating a vehicle. Congress is considering legislation that would require all states to ban texting while driving, or federal highway funds.