The New Centrality of Mobile Phones: How adolescents text & talk with friends and how that compares with other forms of interpersonal communication Amanda Lenhart, Rich Ling & Scott Campbell Society for Research in Child Development March 31, 2011 Montreal May Methods 800 teens ages 12 to 17 and a parent or guardian were contacted by landline or cellular telephone in a nationally representative rdd survey conducted from June to September focus groups in four cities with middle and high school aged teens (ages 12-18) conducted in June and October 2009 Joint project of the Pew Research Centers Internet & American Life Project and the University of Michigan. 2/18/20163 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2/18/201611 2/18/201612 2/18/201613 Girls, Boys & Mobile Communication Girls have more fully embraced mobile phones for social communication Girls are more likely to: text friends daily (86% vs. 64% boys) call friends daily on their cell phones (59% of girls call daily vs. 42% of boys) have long text exchanges about personal matters (77% vs. 62%) have long personal voice conversations on their cell phones, to call friends about school work, and to report where they are to someone. 2/18/201614 2/18/201615 2/18/201616 2/18/ Amanda Lenhart Pew Research Centers Internet & American Life Project photo by arcticpenguin