well, yeah.

Interesting, but it is hard to draw conclusions from this. The under 18 crowd may not necessarily prefer texting to phoning. Texting is just easier to do discretely, during class, etc. If they didn't have parental restrictions to worry about, I think their data would look more like the 18-24 set.

2,779 texts a month. Really? That sounds slightly incredible. 100 a day, on *average*?

100 a day is not that much, if it's the main form of communication between you and your friends. I never used that much, but I've had times when I texted 10-15 messages to a single person in a day; people with more friends would text more, especially with twitter where you're just basically informing the whole universe of your state of being :-p

I've found a huge change in "phone manners" over the past couple years. Myself and my friends are in our twenties, and there seems to be an increasing hesitancy to just call someone. Instead of calling to change the bar we're meeting at, or to ask me to go do something, I get a cryptic text... which then has to go back and forth to get the time, address, etc. Sometimes, after such an exchange, I wonder why they just didn't call, which would have been so much easier.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

And we wonder why kids don't learn sweet-smack all in class these days. Grumble...

I am in my early twenties so I only have a dim memory of life before cell phones, but I can easily remember the rise of texting over phone calls. These days almost all communication is done through texting. Phone calls are usually reserved for conversations. If a friend and I want to catch up, we'll text each other to set up a time to call each other. I think it has to do with this idea that phone calls are time-consuming, that is, a person would have to commit to that conversation. Of course people can multi-task on the phone, but texting can be done so easily and privately alongside everyday life that it's more convenient. To call someone is to ask for their time and focus, so it seems people are more hesitant about casually phoning someone.

I've never sent a text in my life and I'm Gen X. I have received a couple, though.

Blargh grumble grumble kids these days with their cell phones and their sexting! Back in my day kids were moral and upstanding, and we had to walk 8 miles uphill in the snow, both ways, to get to school. Not like kids these days, who spend their time have giant texting orgies and watching Youtubes with their Facebooks. Confound it all!

LOL. Of course people are using this to complain about 'damn kids these days.' But that's not what this graph says at all. This simply says 'methods of communicating are ever evolving.' I'm 20. When I got my first cell phone at 13 or 14, no one texted all that much, and if we did, it was something like 'I can't talk right now, but are we still meeting at 8?' or 'hey, are you busy or can I call you?' Now, while I prefer not to have lengthy conversations via text, that's how most plans are made. It's simply easier. If I'm having lunch with one friend, and another friend needs to borrow a textbook, instead of rudely interrupting my lunch with a phone call, or inconveniencing someone else by silencing my phone and ignoring the call, I can take 5 seconds to say when they can pick up the book, and everyone's happy.

Let's recall all the various ways that technology has changed communication. Just in the last ten years, email has become practically obsolete for traditional instant messages, which have become practically obsolete with the popularity of Skype and facebook's addition of chat (and while I may be young in years, I am a GEEZER as far as facebook goes; no, facebook chat has not always existed, which may come as a surprise to anyone who had graduated college prior to 2006 or so, since most 'older' people and kids in middle school didn't have facebook until the last couple years. News feeds haven't always existed either). Cell phones are now considered something almost necessary for an American to have, so much that they have them for small children or available on government aid. When I got my first one, they were common, but a luxury item, and it was not remotely shocking to hear someone say they didn't have a cell phone, or that they had one, but didn't have texting capabilities and could only talk after 8 PM. When my mom got her first one, they were seen as something totally unnecessary unless you were a doctor, an incredibly wealthy showoff, or a drug dealer.

And let's not forget. When email became popular, people grumped and complained and said 'I CAN JUST PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL SOMEONE!' Land-line phones were considered unnecessary luxuries just invented to bother people at home well into the 1940s, and people grumped and complained and said 'I CAN JUST WRITE THEM A LETTER IF I WANT TO TALK TO THEM!' I'm sure that when people first figured out how to write letters, the thousands-of-years-ago people grumped and complained and said 'IF I WANT TO TALK TO THEM, I CAN JUST WAIT A WEEK AND BUMP INTO THEM AT THE MARKETPLACE OR WALK TWENTY MILES UPHILL AND KNOCK ON THEIR DOOR!'

what is going to happen to this graph in 10 years? Are all the current 16 year olds going to be texting at the same rate or at the rate the current 26 year olds are now?

i turned 25 this year - has my texting subconsciously reduced?

i'm really curious to see this graph again in 10 years...

My phone plan is unlimited texts but limited minutes. Makes texting cheaper. (My aunt ONLY texts because it's cheaper, and I guess she has a minimal-minutes plan. It makes me a little crazy.)

I've always hated calling people, though, even before texting existed. So I prefer texting because of that!

No commentary at all, socimages?

So while my generation has all sorts of practical reasons for using texting so much, I do wonder if we have developed a certain amount of discomfort talking on the phone at all. I remember as a kid I hatedhatedhated talking on the phone. My early memories of phone education were about what to do if someone I didn't know called on the phone and reminders to be very careful not to say my parents weren't home when explaining they couldn't take a call. I think this and my already very shy nature made me really hesitant to use phones at all.

I realize I have a higher phone anxiety than most people my age, (although I've been learning to combat it lately, and unlike most people, I've been increasing the amount of actual calls I make and *reducing* texts) but it seems like similar feelings of discomfort come up pretty commonly with my peers.

I had an external 9600 baud modem and downloaded information from bulletin boards... when i got to college I sent e-mail using Pine and you got to "finger" people. [snicker] My computer ran Windows 3.1 and I had a 350 MB hard drive and used 3.5" floppy disks regularly!

Oh, and the Motorola StarTAC hadn't even been released yet... and when my roommate bought a 'tapeless' (a.k.a., digital) answering machine with two 'mailboxes' it was REALLY cool. You could call in and check the messages from any public phone.

I sent my first text message in 1999. I was living in Europe and bought my first cell phone. I was 23.

As a side note -- I'm actually really impressed by the VOICE usage as well. Apparently I'm either antisocial or I prefer to speak to my friends in person... it can't be both, can it?

Over the last few years my company has implemented a built in Instant Messaging system. Everyone automatically has an account and you're pretty much expected to be on. Where before I might e-mail someone a question or call if I needed an answer "right now", now I "OC" (office communicator) them and ask instead.

I almost never make a call without OCing first to see if they're free. Since many of us are on teleconferences for most of our meetings, it can be the only way to get a hold of someone. It's replacing the idea of stopping by someone's desk to ask a question.

What I like most about it is that it's asynchronous communication, but can be instant. I can leave a question for someone and when they get around to it, we can have a quick conversation about it.

I do expect that as the current younger generation grows that they will bring their texting habits along with them, at least until the next big communication thing.

I read an interesting article (which I can't find now) about how our increased connectivity is reducing the overhead costs of social activities. For example, meeting up at a bar or to see a movie would previously have required lots of advanced planning - phone calls, messages left, etc. Now they can happen "on the fly" with texting or cell calls, regardless of participant location. It makes it easier to get together.

I recently experienced this when I met up with some friends about 30 miles from home - we had to change the meeting place a couple times, we were given traffic advisories, and even changed the meeting time - all while we were both on the road. In a previous era, any one of these conditions could have ruined the outing. Now we just take it for granted.

I love living in the world of the future!

For the old and/or crotchety people in the audience*, consider this: I live on my own and my dad and I often text "good morning!" to each other. How likely do you think it would be that I would call my parents everyday just to say "<3 u"? (Think of the children -- who actually communicate with their folks, now! ;p)

*not actually anyone here, it seems

I really wouldn't have a problem with texting if it weren't such an abject rip-off. Text messages should be free. God knows they are for wireless carriers.

Boomers had their formative sexual experiences with phone sex. My generation had our formative sexual experiences cybering. Now there's sexting, which is basically the same thing. The younger generations are just more comfortable with sex in a text-based medium. And, as always with technology, progress follows sex.