- 82% of Americans have a mobile phone
- 72% of mobile users text or receive texts
- The average adult cell phone owner makes and receives around 5 voice calls a day.
- 57% of adults with cell phones have received unwanted or spam text messages on their phone (probbly from their carriers)
- 65% of adults with cell phones say they have ever slept with their cell phone on or right next to their bed.
Pew also speculates that in some cases people may be using text/SMS as an “Internet replacement.” However this conclusion is inferred and not based on any direct question(s). The idea is that Internet users have other communication tools and channels available to them and so they rely on SMS less heavily:
Adults with cell phones who text, but who use the internet infrequently, are more likely to use text messaging to have long conversations. Adults who use the internet less than once a week are more likely than those who use the internet more frequently to say they have long message exchanges on important personal topics several times a day – 22% of infrequent internet users report this, while 8% of daily internet users and 6% of those who use the internet several times a week report having frequent, long text exchanges. These infrequent internet users are also more likely than weekly users to use text messaging to coordinate meeting up with someone (21% vs. 8%) and to use text messaging to communicate silently with someone (19% vs. 7%). Taken together, these findings suggest that some cell phone users may be using their phone’s texting capabilities as a substitute for internet access on a computer.