Pew Research Study On Adult Cell Phone Usage
For American adults, making calls on mobiles is still king.
As part of its ongoing Internet & American Life Project, the Pew Research Center recently published the results of its study into the cell phone habits of American adults. From April 29th to May 30th, 2010, 2,252 adults aged 18 and over responded to a phone survey seeking insight into mobile phone ownership and usage. The findings collected were then compared against a similar project related to teens, aged 12-17, gathered during September 2009.
Not surprisingly, the ubiquity of cell phones is approaching a critical mass, with 82% of respondents reporting ownership of one or more mobiles. And though texting is certainly becoming a more mainstream form of communication, voice calls still account for primary usage, with the average user making and receiving five calls a day.
- Adults who text typically send and receive a median of 10 texts a day; teens who text send and receive a median of 50 texts per day.
- 5% of all adult texters send more than 200 text messages a day or more than 6,000 texts a month. Fully 15% of teens 12-17, and 18% of adults 18 to 24 text message more than 200 messages a day, while just 3% of adults 25 to 29 do the same.
- Heavy adult texters – those who send and receive more than 50 texts day — also tend to be heavy users of voice calling. Light texters, who exchange 1 to 10 texts a day, do not make up for less texting by calling more. Instead, they are light users of both calling and texting.