Stunning stat on texting

This one knocked my socks off: The average 13- to 17-year-old sends and receives 3,339 texts a month, or more than 100 per day, according to Nielsen. Along with the skyrocketing use of text messages has come a noticeable drop in the amount of time spent talking on the phone (among 18- to 24-year-olds the decline was especially sizeable). Little wonder no one cares about voice quality on smart phones - the "phone" part has become irrelevant. From the WSJ:

A recent survey of 2,000 college students asked about their attitudes toward phone calls and text-messaging and found the students' predominant goal was to pass along information in as little time, with as little small talk, as possible. "What they like most about their mobile devices is that they can reach other people," says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University in Washington, D.C., who conducted the survey. "What they like least is that other people can reach them."

Part of what's driving the texting surge among adults is the popularity of social media. Sites like Twitter, with postings of no more than 140 characters, are creating and reinforcing the habit of communicating in micro-bursts. And these sites also are pumping up sheer volume. Many Twitter and Facebook devotees create settings that alert them, via text message, every time a tweet or message is earmarked for them. In October 2009, 400 million texts alerted social-media users to such new messages across AT&T's wireless network, says Mark Collins, AT&T senior vice president for data and voice products; by September 2010, the number had more than doubled to one billion.