Nielsen: Teens Sends an Average of 10 Text Messages Per Hour

by Tom Henderson (Subscribe to Tom Henderson's posts) Feb 11th 2010 12:00PM

Categories: Teens & Tweens, In The News, Gadgets & Tech

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Texting is cheaper than ever before. Credit: maxually, Flickr

They may take time out for school and (occasionally) sleep. Otherwise, American teenagers are busy sending an average of 10 text messages per hour.

Researchers for the Nielsen Company learned of the stat after looking at more than 40,000 monthly mobile bills. Nielsen is the same New York marketing and advertising research company that provides ratings for television shows.

Turning their attention to cell phones, researchers also discovered that tweens send an average of four text messages per hour.

Roger Entner, senior vice president of Research and Insights, discussed the revelations in a blog Jan. 26 on the company's Web site.

He writes that kids "text in the morning before they brush their teeth and continue late into the night with the last text messages (also called SMS) sneaked in under the covers right before they close their eyes to sleep. Until now, there has been very little firm data available about how pervasive texting has actually become among the under aged."

Entner calls the results of his company's study "staggering."

Some parents no doubt feel staggered by the cost of text messages. Entner writes that there's a lesson to be learned from his company's research.

"Looking at the same bill panel, we can see that only a very small percentage of people who text message are doing so on a pay-as-you-go basis at the 20-cent-per-message rate, with the vast majority of users subscribing to plans," he writes. "When we actually incorporate the effect that the significant uptake of messaging bundles has on the actual price that customers are paying for each text message, we find that wireless customers are actually paying only one penny per message," he adds.

He compares it subscribing to a newspaper. If you buy the Wall Street Journal at a newsstand every day, he writes, it costs you $2 an issue. A yearly subscription is $119. That's an 80 percent discount, Entner points out.

"After all the negative publicity that text messaging has received, a look at the facts is showing quite a different picture," he writes. "When one takes into account usage, text messaging is very affordable and cheaper than ever before."

Related: Text Message Analysis Leads to PhD

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Comments (36)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

katie 2-15-2010 @ 3:40PM

I am 16 years old, and I think I've sent like 200 texts in the 2 years i've had my phone, and over 150 have been "i'm done with crew/cross country practice." ppl seem to think that teens are glued to their phones, but it's totally not true

Kathy 2-15-2010 @ 4:10PM

Katie, sorry to say that you're in the minority. I'm not a mom, but my friends' kids are with them a lot and those kids text through dinner, bowling, riding in a car, etc. It's insane to me......I think it's very rude to say that you want to go bowling, but after each ball thrown you hit the phone to text your buds and ignore those people you are actually bowling with! Or take a few bites of food and when the phone signals an incoming text, the food and tablemates are ignored to text a reply. I think texting is a great communication tool, but I think that it's just utilized WAY too much, personally speaking....

chuckie 2-15-2010 @ 4:49PM

Katie...you're missing a great opportunity to stay in touch with your friends. Cross country is a wonderful sport for texting, you don't need your hands to compete!
J/K...sounds like you have a real life and are doing something with it. Good luck with your running!

lindie 2-15-2010 @ 6:10PM

My parents watched my text for a half a year. I understand and the only people i could was my parents.

Whiskey 2-15-2010 @ 8:14PM

Kathy, you are spot on. The text messaging on cell phones, combined with Facebook and Myspace, is like a 24/7 party. The kids can't pay attention to their family or friends they are actually with due to the constant distraction of texting. Texting in class, texting in church, texting at the dinner table, texting in the car and texting in bed. I see the iphone even has special app for locating toilets and texting while using the bathroom.. The "Ipoo". One good thing though... If you want to get something across to your kid, all ya gotta say is "no phone, no computer until you get it done". Already been though that.. it works. :)

Rally 2-15-2010 @ 4:06PM

The average texting I do in a day would probably be considered unhealthy. Im in highschool, and before I purchased a phone, I was virtually without need of one. Now that I've had one for quite some time, I'd have to use the phrase that all of my friends would use, should they be taken away .. " I'd die without my phone." I would fully agree with this survey, and the views of other's on teen texting.

ashleymarie 2-15-2010 @ 4:40PM

i think that mine is unhealthy too. i send over 7000 messages a month but i have a unlimited plan which is always good.

Ann 2-15-2010 @ 4:52PM

I have a teenage daughter and I hate her constant texting it has gotten so out of control, she has a ready made family 24/7 in the palm of her hand. Talk about news updates from LA to San Fran anything happening is sent in an instant via text message. Some of today's teens communicate with their friends before family. Another distraction is Facebook witht their 585 friends online, it is insane and before long Dr Drew will have another rehab program in the works because of this problem....

gs 2-15-2010 @ 5:36PM

do some parenting - your chilldren are addicted and will eventually starve to death because they have no market value - take the phones and money away - quit letting your deviant offspring run you leves - same goes for pets

Elmer R. Hemingway 2-15-2010 @ 11:43PM

Right on.. parents..do your job

Chris 2-15-2010 @ 5:38PM

It can be cool to connect with friends and family, and it is a good opportunity to learn responsibility. Many lessons to be learned. Use it responsibly, do not loose it, keep within minutes and learn the value of money. If a teenager is old enough to text...it's time for a job.
http://www.jobs-for-14-year-olds.info/

shirley pontrich 2-15-2010 @ 5:41PM

if these teenagers weren't allowed to have the phones then these texts wouldn't happen!!!!

Izzy 2-15-2010 @ 6:59PM

Ha ! this isnt that bad at alll !!!
i use to be addicted, but im better now :)
most people probably do 5 times this,
im in 8th grade.
People who dont text at all are outcasts, i must say.
They are also typically the people who dont have anything to do over the weekend. You know, the people who constantly have "so bored" or "i cant wait for school monday" as their facebook status.

Texting isnt a crime, it is a really a wonderful way to stay in touch with your friends. Yet, overusing it is baddd . i guess . haha (:

i text somewhat, maybe thirty times a day ?
more on weekends, but i have a lifee!

im a competitive swimmer, dancer, i run a lot, i have a sleepover basically every weekend and am always hanging out with friends. Not to mention im making straight A's in all gifted classes .
Im doing just fine (:

Sandy 2-15-2010 @ 5:56PM

Where are the ineffective parents who allow their children to text
10 times an hour? Where are the ineffective parents who bought
their teens a phone? Where are the ineffective parents who are
too afraid to set limits?

Tom Brody 2-15-2010 @ 5:58PM

The news item states that teens send text messages ten times per hour. When I was a teenager, during the 1960s, I whacked off ten times per hour. How times have changed.

clevaever456 2-15-2010 @ 6:00PM

okay, so i may be a teenager and a minority or whatever, and that maybe some people over use texting, but first of all, you adults make us sound like we are idiots which we aren't because we would have probably run the earth into the ground already. Second, i think that texting is just a way of us talking, we find it easier and less awkward to text someone rather then call them. Third, for all of you adults who are saying mean, and hurtful things to the teens who are commenting....grow up. I mean really. I am younger than you and i am telling you to grow up....sad. And please for the sake of you and your kids (if you have some) don't over exaggerate and please please don't embarrass yourself (and for those who have....get it together.)

brandon 2-15-2010 @ 6:00PM

i'm a 15 year old guy and i'm not embarassed to say that i text pretty much nonstop throughout the day, i dont live near any of my friends so its an easy way to stay in touch with a lot of people while still doing other things. i can be doing homework, listening to music, eating dinner, on facebook, texting 10 people and be on the phone with another 3. i dont see a problem with multitasking, i'm a straight a student

Chelsea 2-15-2010 @ 6:03PM

I've had more than 20,000 texts in a month with an unlimited plan. But I'm also definitely not addicted. I can go without my phone and be okay. And I also don't text during important events (dinners, family things, while I'm driving, or anything where it would be rude). I'm just saying. I know lots of people take it to the extreme. But you can use it and still not be crazy.

John 2-15-2010 @ 6:59PM

Oh it's so wonderful to know that you don't send text messages while you are driving. Duh.
Teenagers have little self control, in anything. By giving them a device such as a cell phone that allows them to obsess is a huge mistake. Parents are to blame for this stupidity.
Teenagers who send 10 text messages an hour are often also typing messages on Facebook and if you don't consider all this to be obsessive behavior then you are, well, blind or ignorant. All of this electronic socializing will lead teenagers into a lifestyle of sloth because they won't know how to do anything productive. I hope the parents of these teens will have fun supporting them when they are 35 years old and still living at home because they acquired no real skills. Throw the damn cell phone in the garbage and act like a real human being before it's too late.

Dani A. 2-15-2010 @ 6:23PM

My family doesn't allow texting since we don't have a texting plan. Sometimes I'm forced to text someone if I get a text from a unknown person that I would rather not call. So in all, I've texted maybe 5 or six times in my lifetime (turning 17 next month).

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