Nearly a third of all Americans prefer getting text messages to talking on the telephone, a new report says–a number that soars to well over half among the most prodgious text users, primarily young adults.
The new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project finds 83% of American adults own cell phones and nearly three-quarters of them send and receive text messages. Although 53 percent say they prefer talking on the telephone to exchanging text message, 31 percent say they’d rather text.
Among those who send and receive more than 50 test messages a day, though–a group that consists in large part of those 18 to 29 years old–55 percent prefer to be contacted by text message compared with 27 percent who’d rather talk (the rest said it depends on the situation).
The survey also found that those in the 18-to-29-year-old group send and receive an average of 87.7 texts a day. The median, however, is just 40 texts a day, meaning half the groups texts more than that and half less. So reaching such a high average means some users must be texting nearly non-stop.