Young Adults Increasingly Contact Parents via Text Messaging

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Young Adults Increasingly Contact Parents via Text Messaging

7:05 am on November 29, 2008 | Category: Telecom Services, Wireless, Messaging

Text messaging continues to be immensely popular among Americans aged 30 or less, and more and more of these users are introducing their parents to wireless messaging technology.

20% of U.S. adults aged 55 to 64 now send text messages on their cell phones, according to a recent study by Sprint Nextel. That compares to just 13% of 50 to 64-year-olds who took advantage of text messaging in 2006 (according to a Pew Research study).

A full 76% of adults aged 55-64 have sent text messages to their children, according to the Sprint study. Given that 57% of those 50-64 have children aged 18 to 24 (according to the U.S. Census), it appears that more and more of these baby boomers are using text messaging to reach out to their grown children who are away at college or living in other cities.

Sprint’s research also discovered that people under the age of 30 are four times more likely to respond to a text message within minutes than they are to a voicemail message, and that 91% will usually respond to text messages within an hour.

“This research confirms the anecdotal information we’ve been hearing from parents: Their children respond faster to text messages than to voice messages,” said Kim Dixon, vice president of Sprint’s retail division. “But, the research also indicates that children are more likely to get a quick response from their parents using text messaging … it is pretty clear that the increasing rate of text adoption in recent years is fueled by our children altering how we stay in touch with them.”