A Really Busy Signal

At Least She's Not Texting While In Traffic

The Nielsen company does a great deal of research on the media habits of Americans. They are the folks who determine what programs we watch on television and in what numbers. Now, it seems that this company also does research on phone usage...but I think it wasted the time it took to survey the phone records of 60,000 mobile phone users. I could have predicted the results, mostly, and I would bet that you could, too.
For example, people over 65 use text messaging less than any other group: an average of 32 per month. Surprised? Maybe that older people use text at ALL, but not that they would be the least frequent users.
Who uses texting the most? I'm sure you know: teens, who send text messages at the rate of 2779 per month! Yep, more than 90 times a day on average. This is the single biggest reason I even HAVE a cell phone: my students refused to answer emails...though I get 100% response, sometimes immediately, from text messages.
It's also not too surprising that women text more than men (averaging 601 per month while men text 447 times per month), nor did it shock me to find out that women talk on the phone more than men, spending an average of 22% more time on the phone than their male counterparts.
There are, however, some interesting factoids that caught my attention.
1. African-Americans and Hispanics use the phone more than white users.
2. Even Pacific Islanders talk more on the phone than white users (692 min/month compared to 647 min/month).
3. Southerners use the phone more than we Yankees do.
4. African-Americans text the most (780 per month), followed by Hispanics (767 per month) and whites (566 per month).
5, The state of Florida has the most talkers but the fewest texters. (Given the age of the population in Florida, I guess this is not a surprise)
All in all, it's no wonder the US Postal Service is losing money and threatening to cancel my Saturday collection of junk mail.
America: we need to write more and use the phone (which scrambles our brains anyway, I'm told) less!