WASHINGTON — R u kidding me? Americans punched out more than 110 billion text messages last year, double the number in the previous year and growing, as the shorthand communication becomes a popular alternative to cellphone calls.
The nation’s 270 million cellphone subscribers each sent out an average of 407 text messages in 2008, according to government statistics released yesterday by the Census Bureau. That’s more than double the 188 messages sent by the average cell subscriber in 2007.
“If teens are a leader for America, then we are moving to a text-based communication system,” said Amanda Lenhart, research specialist at the Pew Internet and American Life Project. “For them, there is less interest in talking.”
Her research found the average teen currently sends more than 2,000 text messages per month. About two-thirds of all teens use text messaging.
At the same time, the average length of a cellphone call declined last year to 2.3 minutes. That’s the shortest chat time since the 1990s, before mobile devices and cheap calling plans became widely available to everyday consumers.