The New Centrality of Mobile Phones:How adolescents text & talk with friends and how that compares with other forms of interpersonal communication

Amanda Lenhart, Rich Ling & Scott CampbellSociety for Research in Child DevelopmentMarch 31, 2011Montreal

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Methods

• 800 teens ages 12 to 17 and a parent or guardian were contacted by landline or cellular telephone in a nationally representative rdd survey conducted from June to September 2009.

• 9 focus groups in four cities with middle and high school aged teens (ages 12-18) conducted in June and October 2009

• Joint project of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and the University of Michigan.

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Girls, Boys & Mobile Communication

• Girls have more fully embraced mobile phones for social communication

• Girls are more likely to:

– text friends daily (86% vs. 64% boys)

– call friends daily on their cell phones (59% of girls call daily vs. 42% of boys)

– have long text exchanges about personal matters (77% vs. 62%)

– have long personal voice conversations on their cell phones, to call friends about school work, and to report where they are to someone.

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Amanda LenhartPew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Projecthttp://pewinternet.org@amanda_lenhart

photo by arcticpenguin