Texting is not just for the young anymore

Eighty-six percent of American’s own a mobile phone, according to the wireless association CTIA, which says the majority of texters are adults. Teenagers no longer dominate the text messaging scene. Adults seem to be getting in on the action too.

Andrea Rudolph said she likes texting because it’s discrete and allows her to multi-task. She admits she needed a little help at first. “My youngest daughter particularly will text message me and I did not know how to text message. It was pretty funny actually because it took me a long time to type one word out,” she said.

The face of who is texting is changing, according to CTIA. In the US, the average texter is about 38 years old. Nineteen percent of users are between the ages of 18-24. Twenty-four percent are between the ages of 25-34. Twenty-two percent are older than 35.

At 30 years old, Amy Conry said texting saves her time. “Sometimes it’s convenient. Sometimes you just want to send a little message, and you didn’t want to make a big phone call out of it. Just to let somebody know something small,” she said.

CTIA says texters sent more than 75 billion messages each month since June, compared to just 18 billion in December 2006. UNCW Sociology professor, Diane Levy, said adults are texting more because they’re busier. “I think it has a lot to do with how we value our time and texting is just so much quicker and direct.”

Wireless companies offer different types of text plans. Some have unlimited text plans where the charge is included in your monthly calling plan. Others have small text packages that require an additional fee.

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