Ian Shapira from The Washington Post writes a story that we’ve been reading quarter after quarter, year after year, that young people no longer use their mobile phones to talk, but instead bang out text messages at a ferocious pace. The format of these articles are usually the same, highlighting parent’s gripes with their children’s inability to call them back, some numbers are then thrown around, and the conclusion is always “well, that’s progress for you”.
With that, let’s digg out some interesting snippets:
- In the 18 to 34 years old age bracket, the amount of minutes used per month has declined from 1200 minutes to 900 minutes over the past 2 years. That’s a solid 5 hours less every month, or 10 minutes less each day.
- For people between the ages of 18 and 24, the average number of text messages used has gone from 600 per month to 1400 in just 2 years. That’s more than double.
- The average length of a phone call in 1993 was 2.38 minutes. As of 2009 it’s now 1.81 minutes.
- AT&T reports that the number of land line customers they have dropped from 50 million in 2005 to 31 million as of this year.
When asked, young people always reply that a call is interrupting. That when you call someone you demand their full attention. It’s much more politie to schedule a call via email or Facebook or SMS and then blab on and on about the color of your girlfriend’s hair at a later date and time, and I tend to agree with that sentiment. Calling people is mentally taxing. It says that you’re trying to reach someone because you need an immediate response to a question or have to perform a time sensitive action.
One of the choice quotes from this article comes from Lianna Levine Reisner, age 26:
“My parents call and leave voice mails. They do that a lot,” she said. “I might listen and realize they’re not saying anything other than just, ‘Call me.’ I am not much of a phone talker.”
I think everyone who reads this site can say the same thing.