Average Teen Texts 3339 Times Per Month?

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
I know there are some kids out there that text a LOT but to claim the “average” kid is sending 3339 texts a month is really pushing it.

If it seems like American teens are texting all the time, it’s probably because on average they’re sending or receiving 3,339 texts a month. That’s more than six per every hour they’re awake – an 8 percent jump from last year.

The study claims that, on average, kids are sending a text message every ten minutes for eighteen hours straight? What?!? The “average” 14 year old is up 18 hours a day non-stop texting?
 
Given my observations of my 14 year old brother and sisters habits I'd honestly say that seems about right.
 
The less you have to say, the more you talk.

This is even more true of texting and twittering.
 
I can't see the article (work filters) but I'd guess this is mesured by number of texts recieved (although it might be both) which means it's being horrifically skewed by spams texts, e.g. twitter and face book updates they might read, but probably don't.

I get hundreds of spam e-mails a day, but I only get 10-15 "real e-mails" a day. So by their standards, I'd probably be e-mailing hundreds of times a day.
 
Wow, such a huge contrast to my personal usage. I send, on average, 2-3 texts per month. I much prefer calling or a face to face. I'm 26, so it is not like I am much removed from that generation.

Preferred methods of communication: In person, voice, email, and SMS. (Facetime looks promising, I will have to try it and see if it feels weird or not)
 
My preferences: in person > phone > text > everything else > email > voicemail

With that in mind, I don't text as much as most people do.. but still plenty. 3k a month doesn't surprise me.
 
Given my observations of my 14 year old brother and sisters habits I'd honestly say that seems about right.

Ditto.

In fact I think its a low estimate.

Judging by the $7000 phone bill we got when Verizon stupidly removed our unlimited texting for a month, and overage charges are $.05 per text, ~140,000 texts a month seems more like it.

I've had arguments with my stepsons to turn their f:ing text notification tones off or to set them to vibrate, as it makes life intolerable to hear them going off every other second or so the entire time they are awake.
 
Being a 19 year old college student and observing my 13 year old little brother, I can say this study is true. I send quite a few texts a month but they are usually to set up a time to hang out but half of the time I call if I need to talk to someone. My little brother on the other hand sends meaningless texts I assume just because he is little and likes to to show he is mature by using sms.
 
I hate to admit this but in August my daughter used up 17,000 + texts thank god for unlimited texting. One thing to note is that kids that text do not use minutes to call so its not surprising, I mean sending 10 messages a day to friends saying Hi adds up quick.
 
Texting is so much easier then having to call someone, and then later after things change call again.

Texting allows a dynamic form of conversation amongst many people, it's a network, and it's awesome. But 100 or so a day!? Come on, there's no effin' way the "average" teenager is sending that many.
 
Just got my 14 year old's bill yesterday. ~14,000 text messages for the month :eek:
I have told her to find something else to do or I will find something for her. Way too much time poking at a cell phone.
 
What are these little kids telling eachother in all these text messages? I mean, how much can a 12 year old really have to talk about?
 
It is mostly senseless babble that 12-14 year olds talk about. I know when I take a look at his phone all of the texts are just one or two word texts.
 
This is what happens when you give 14-year-olds unrestricted cell phones.
 
wtf! I have unlimited texting on my phone plan, but damn I only send about 30 texts at the most a month [pre-paid.. so calling is expensive :(]
 
My kid (16) seems to average about 500 a month, with occasional spikes to ~1000. And I thought he texted "a lot".
 
Whenever I text a naked picture of myself in ASCII art, it takes about 200 texts, one per line, so I'm not surprised. ^-^
These teens are bots!
 
What are these little kids telling eachother in all these text messages? I mean, how much can a 12 year old really have to talk about?

heheh, important things like Hannah Montannah and who kissed who and who has a detention and who's a mean teacher.
 
My sister (now 20) used to send about 3000 texts a month. I send about 25 texts a month with my fiancee now in Japan, but when she is in the states I send about 500 texts a month. Calling does not work all the time (and I only have 300 minutes, but unlimited texts) because people are in class/work/busy and a text is can easily be answered now or in a couple hours if they are busy. However, I prefer talking in person and if my message is going to be long I will call them rather than text. If it is something simple I send a text, but for the most part I do not use my cellphone that much without my fiancee around. I could go without it and be fine. Only reason I have it is because it is $27 a month with tax and a land line is around $22. I'll spend the extra $5 for portability.

As for teens who have more than 10000 texts a month, when I have kids I would definitely limit their cell phone use. Hell, I didn't get a cell phone until 2004 (19) and sending that many texts is not necessary. Teens can't be that busy to not go over to someone's house and hang out. I know I'm not that busy now and I do way more than most teens and I still have time...
 
1/2 way through the billing cycle:
Me - 701
Wife - 735
14yo - 7061
12yo - 2979

So with both girls, I would say the numbers are close.
 
My preferences: in person > phone > text > everything else > email > voicemail

Mine are avoidance>messages on sites/forums>in person (if I know you)>email>phone>in person>across a courtroom>text

Text is just annoying because it means you have to own a phone.
 
Plus sending a text message takes 100x the time it takes to type a message, even with swype and other such junk it still is laborious. If you take away all the time it takes to send all that junk, then youd gain an extra day a month. Which could be spend....twittering or something.
 
I know young people who have over 30,000 per month just for them on their bill. That's both send and receive side mind you, but still, that's one every 2 minutes. Extraverts. Annoying as always.
 
Doesn't seem off to me. Yes, it's one every 10 minutes for 18hrs a day. It's also one every 5 minutes for 9 hours a day. I send more than 1 text message every 5 minutes that I'm awake.
 
That seems like quite a bit and then I looked at my bill
Me- 6,200
Better half- 5500

I'm 27 she's 25... I dunno I use texting just like I use instant messenger
 
Doesn't seem off to me. Yes, it's one every 10 minutes for 18hrs a day. It's also one every 5 minutes for 9 hours a day. I send more than 1 text message every 5 minutes that I'm awake.

Every 5 minutes you are awake? Are you serious?
 
google instant messaging, uses data plan so its free. no addional charges for me. i do have the basic 250 text plan does my idoit friends had do buy the cheapo texting low end android phones. they can't use google messaging.
 
I am 26, and I hate all of the new forms of "communication". Lets de-personalize everything.

In college, I momentarily thought about creating a Facebook. It came out of nowhere, and I decided to avoid social networking once I starting hearing friends talk about being broke up with over Facebook, etc. I did use instant messenger in college but deleted all of the accounts in 2007.

Texting and Internet is blocked on my phone and on my wife's phone.

Things started getting really annoying when my parents got a texting plan:
1. Recently, I was riding with my Dad, and he was starting to text while driving. I put a stop to that.
2. My Mom has tones on her phone so each keystroke makes a noise over the speaker. We will be sitting in a restaraunt and she will be making a ton of noise.
3. It is almost impossible to have a conversation in person, because they are constantly receiving and replying to texts.
4. Some information should not be sent in texts. My mother texted my sister to tell her she was going to be having surgery. Recently, my father texted my social security number to my mother. My SSN now resides on both of their phones.

I feel like any picture of me or any information I give out needs to be questioned. I hate people posting things about me on Facebook and such.

My methods of communication:
1. In person
2. Phone
3. Email. If you are emailing me, it had better not be a Forward, or an email sent to 50 people. These will get people blocked. Also, the email had better not be the only time I hear from you. This will also result in blocking.

Sending 3,000 msgs in a month is completely incomprehensible. The only good part from that is that it is only 480,000 characters. The negative part is that nobody communicates with complete words, sentences, or thoughts.

I really, really hate texting.
 
I send about a dozen or so a month, now that I have a qwerty phone. Texting on the 10-key...I always thought was crazy stupid.

If my girls ever turn into thousands-of-texts-a-month teenagers (they're 4.5 & 3) I will seriously smash their phone into bits. No way would I put up with a text being sent or received every 5 minutes.
 
I am 26, and I hate all of the new forms of "communication". Lets de-personalize everything.

In college, I momentarily thought about creating a Facebook. It came out of nowhere, and I decided to avoid social networking once I starting hearing friends talk about being broke up with over Facebook, etc. I did use instant messenger in college but deleted all of the accounts in 2007.

Texting and Internet is blocked on my phone and on my wife's phone.

Things started getting really annoying when my parents got a texting plan:
1. Recently, I was riding with my Dad, and he was starting to text while driving. I put a stop to that.
2. My Mom has tones on her phone so each keystroke makes a noise over the speaker. We will be sitting in a restaraunt and she will be making a ton of noise.
3. It is almost impossible to have a conversation in person, because they are constantly receiving and replying to texts.
4. Some information should not be sent in texts. My mother texted my sister to tell her she was going to be having surgery. Recently, my father texted my social security number to my mother. My SSN now resides on both of their phones.

I feel like any picture of me or any information I give out needs to be questioned. I hate people posting things about me on Facebook and such.

My methods of communication:
1. In person
2. Phone
3. Email. If you are emailing me, it had better not be a Forward, or an email sent to 50 people. These will get people blocked. Also, the email had better not be the only time I hear from you. This will also result in blocking.

Sending 3,000 msgs in a month is completely incomprehensible. The only good part from that is that it is only 480,000 characters. The negative part is that nobody communicates with complete words, sentences, or thoughts.

I really, really hate texting.

Same boat.
 
Sending 3,000 msgs in a month is completely incomprehensible. The only good part from that is that it is only 480,000 characters. The negative part is that nobody communicates with complete words, sentences, or thoughts.

Not necessarily. I'm a good texter. Since text messages are split into pages automatically on most smart phones, and unlimited texting packages are ubiquitous... I don't try to conserve characters - and honestly, the amount of txt spk seems 2 hav decreased recently :)

People here are very anti-text... But let's face it, I can text faster than I can get ahold of most people, and sometimes you need to send a message you know will be picked up asap. I don't think I'd survive at my job without the text function, talking to well over 300 trades people in any given week.
 
Not necessarily. I'm a good texter. Since text messages are split into pages automatically on most smart phones, and unlimited texting packages are ubiquitous... I don't try to conserve characters - and honestly, the amount of txt spk seems 2 hav decreased recently :)

People here are very anti-text... But let's face it, I can text faster than I can get ahold of most people, and sometimes you need to send a message you know will be picked up asap. I don't think I'd survive at my job without the text function, talking to well over 300 trades people in any given week.

I agree that I could not survive work without the communication. But I take the time to properly word up an e-mail on my phone and do it that way.
 
I remember what it was like to be a teen yapping on the phone all the time. I bet I would have been a texting fiend if it had been available back in the dino-days.

But I am not a kid and I don't use it at all. I would if it wasn't so expensive, since it CAN be very convenient at times. And I would love to have my servers send me texts, like what the current pH of my fish tank is. But I can't stomach the monthly costs for texting so I don't use it, nor do I have a data plan on my phone. I have the only iPhone in the world with no data plan, I bet...

$20/mo is all I am willing to pay for internet/SMS on my phone, so for now, I do without.

If I had kids, I would get them one of these lame Grandma phones. No texting!

http://www.jitterbug.com/

Hell, that might be MY next phone, with my attitude.

Also, get off my lawn.
 
~3k seems about my monthly average.

I have a habit of having whole conversations so that's probably why.
 
I am 26, and I hate all of the new forms of "communication". Lets de-personalize everything.

In college, I momentarily thought about creating a Facebook. It came out of nowhere, and I decided to avoid social networking once I starting hearing friends talk about being broke up with over Facebook, etc. I did use instant messenger in college but deleted all of the accounts in 2007.

Texting and Internet is blocked on my phone and on my wife's phone.

Things started getting really annoying when my parents got a texting plan:
1. Recently, I was riding with my Dad, and he was starting to text while driving. I put a stop to that.
2. My Mom has tones on her phone so each keystroke makes a noise over the speaker. We will be sitting in a restaraunt and she will be making a ton of noise.
3. It is almost impossible to have a conversation in person, because they are constantly receiving and replying to texts.
4. Some information should not be sent in texts. My mother texted my sister to tell her she was going to be having surgery. Recently, my father texted my social security number to my mother. My SSN now resides on both of their phones.

I feel like any picture of me or any information I give out needs to be questioned. I hate people posting things about me on Facebook and such.

My methods of communication:
1. In person
2. Phone
3. Email. If you are emailing me, it had better not be a Forward, or an email sent to 50 people. These will get people blocked. Also, the email had better not be the only time I hear from you. This will also result in blocking.

Sending 3,000 msgs in a month is completely incomprehensible. The only good part from that is that it is only 480,000 characters. The negative part is that nobody communicates with complete words, sentences, or thoughts.

I really, really hate texting.

Texting while driving, I hate this because it is a serious way to get into an accident. I tried to do it once and I was like. Nope, this is not safe. A related side note to this, my fiancee said she saw a Japanese guy on a bicycle in Japan holding an umbrella and texting at the same time. I have no idea how that is accomplished...

Texting during dinner is rude if you are with someone. I mean if you cannot strike up a conversation at dinner in person, why bother going?

Agree on the other two points.

Facebook side note...I only have a facebook account because my friends in my Japanese courses decided to make an account for me. Needless to say I do not use it since it really serves me no purpose.

Cell phone side note, I'm having a hard time finding a phone (newer) that has good battery life, does some basic texting, good call quality and reasonably price. I still like my motorola L7 I had with ATT since I can go a week without charging it. Sadly, the prepaid for att is too expensive for what you get so I have virgin mobile with an LG rumor2 which has lower battery life than my L7.

Not necessarily. I'm a good texter. Since text messages are split into pages automatically on most smart phones, and unlimited texting packages are ubiquitous... I don't try to conserve characters - and honestly, the amount of txt spk seems 2 hav decreased recently :)

People here are very anti-text... But let's face it, I can text faster than I can get ahold of most people, and sometimes you need to send a message you know will be picked up asap. I don't think I'd survive at my job without the text function, talking to well over 300 trades people in any given week.

I agree. Sending a text message is quicker because it requires very little information or it is not high priority. I think business/work is a bit different if you need to communicate with a lot of clients or coworkers. Calling can take time away from your job, but still depends on how long it is. I do agree that receiving some texts helps me remember because I forget to write something down or I lose what I wrote down.
 
Back
Top