With the increase in technology, teenagers have more ways to
communicate with their peers, parents and other important people in their
lives. Cell phones have made a major upgrade over the last decade. They are
now, high tech savvy devices which can be used for texting, surfing the web and
communicating through social media. Last year, Pew Research conducted a study about
the usage of cell phones amongst teens. A survey was conducted through a
telephone interview amongst 799 teens ages 12-17 and their parents located in
the United States. In addition to the survey, seven focus groups were conducted
in the Washington, D.C. area containing teens between the ages of 12-19. Each
group had between 8 to 14 people with an equal number of teens coming from
different socioeconomic backgrounds and gender. All participants had to have
access to a computer or a cell phone in order to participate.
Cell phone ownership
According to the survey, 77% of teens have a cell phone
which is a dramatic increase from the 45% of teens who owned cell phones in
2004. Whites were more likely to have smart phones than any other race. Teens
that come from low income households are less likely to have a smartphone than
teens that comes from a higher income bracket. This is not surprising to me
considering that smartphones are very expensive and the monthly cost to have a
smartphone due to needing data usage is much higher than a regular cell phone
bill. Thirty percent of teens have smartphones, 56% have regular cell phones
and 14% may not be sure what type of phone they are using. Older teens 14-17
are more likely to have a smart phone than younger teens 12-13.
Smartphone used for more than just talking
Teens with smartphones are avid users of social media. Ninety-one
percent of teen smartphone owners use social networking sites. Half of all
teens have gone online on their mobile phones in the last 30 days. Even a
quarter of teens who do not have their own cell phone have used one to go
online in the last month by borrowing the phone of a friend, parent or sibling.
Smartphone owners are less likely than teens with other types of cell phones to
have used the internet on a desktop computer.
I can admit myself that I am more likely to
surf the internet through my smartphone than my computer. The convenience of a
smartphone allows most people to do a simple task on the internet without
having to sit down and log onto a computer. These days, people are looking for
what is convenient.
Parental control
Parents of smartphone users are now more less likely to use parental
control than other parents to manage and monitor their child's mobile and
internet use. Among all the parents who teens have cell phones, only 34%
use some form of parental control to
help manage their child's cell phone usage.
This came as a shock to me considering that child predators
have an easier way to communicate with children through social media. If
parents are not keeping track of their students' cell phone usage, teens can
easily hide inappropriate activity from their parents. This is an eye opener
and should be publicly addressed to make parents aware of the dangers that can
occur while their child has access to cell phones.
Communication choices among teens
A majority of teens exchange text messages with their
friends. Teens are sending a larger number of texts on a daily basis. Much of
the increase occurs among older teens age 14-17, sending 60 text messages a
day. Boys have the largest increase, but older girls are still sending the most
text messages a day with 100 text messages sent on average. Teens who text the
most also talk the most.
When asked generally about how they communicate with people
in their lives, not just about their friends, but about all kinds of people, teens
point to text messaging as the dominant daily mode of communication. Among all
teens:
- 63% say that they use text to communicate with others every day.
- 39% of teens make and receive voice calls on their mobile phones every day.
- 35% of all teens socialize with others in person outside of school on a daily basis.
- 29% of all teens exchange messages daily through social network sites.
- 22% of teens use instant messaging daily to talk to others.
Texting and calling friends via mobile phone are the two
most popular forms of communication amongst teenagers, even though voice
calling has declined and text messaging as increase. Communication through
social networking sites as increase, while face to face communication outside
of school has declined. This concerns me because teens are becoming more and
more dependent on technology to communicate instead of face to face. How will
this affect our society socially, if this trend continues? One day we may find
ourselves in a world where we only communicate through smartphones devices
instead of having a face to face conversation, even if the person is sitting
right across from us.
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Pages 34/150
I love your infographics! I personally was amazed at the statistic that 63% of teens use their phones to text on a daily basis where as almost half of that percent make or receive phone calls daily. It reinforces the need teens have for the instantaneous connection with people.
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