Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project; Credit: NPR
If you think that your teen is spending a lot of time on his or her cell phone texting, that's because it's true. A new poll by the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project reports that more than half of teens text daily and about a third of those send more than 100 text messages every day!
"There's now an expectation that teens will contact each other via text, and they expect a kind of constant, frequent response," says the Pew Center's Amanda Lenhart, one of the study's authors.
The survey, which was conducted with scholars from the University of Michigan, finds the typical American teen sends 50 texts a day, and a sizable number send double that or more. Some teens text their parents, though most youngsters say they prefer to speak with them by phone.
This rapid rise in texting has led to confrontation as parents and schools try to control cell phone use. The report finds that parents are trying a variety of ways, from monitoring content to limiting the time of day or number of minutes children may talk or text. Many parents surveyed -- 62 percent -- say they've taken away their child's cell phone as punishment, though Lenhart says this can backfire: Parents often give children cell phones to keep track of their whereabouts, and don't like giving up that easy access.
At Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Maryland last week, students were tapping away on their phones before they even reached the exit doors after classes let out. Sierra Koenick, 17, said she and her friends talk about "everything."
"What's going on, or meet me here, or something," she said. Then she added, laughing, "Usually they're dumb texts, not even worth it."
Jennifer Ludden of NPR has the story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126117811
If "more than half of teens text daily and about a third *of those* send more than 100 text messages every day" then it's actually closer to 1 in 6 total teens.
But judging by the graph in the context of the original article, the "of those" just doesn't belong in that sentence. it doesn't actually say anywhere 31% *of who* sends 100+ texts a day.
(it's probably still not total teens, though, considering that ~25% of total teens don't have cell phones at all, and only 2% of the group in the graph send less than 5 messages daily.)