Heavy Texters are Heavy Callers, Study Finds

Want a clue about which consumers, of whatever age, will be heavy text message users? Just look for users who are heavy voice users, a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Heavy adult texters who send and receive more than 50 texts a day also tend to be heavy users of voice calling. Light texters, who exchange one 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.

Texting by adults has increased over the past nine months from 65 percent of adults sending and receiving texts in September 2009 to 72 percent texting in May 2010. Still, adults do not send nearly the same number of texts per day as teens ages 12-17, who send and receive, on average, five times more texts per day than adult texters.

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.

About five percent of all adult texters send more than 200 text messages a day or more than 6,000 texts a month. Fully 15 percent of teens ages 12 to 17, and 18 percent of adults ages 18 to 24 text message more than 200 messages a day, while just three percent of adults ages 25 to 29 do the same.

The average adult cell phone owner makes and receives around five voice calls a day. Women tend to make slightly fewer calls with their cell phones than men.

Men and women are equally likely to be represented at the extreme high end of callers, with eight percent of men and six percent of women making and taking more than 30 calls a day.

link to study