July 17, 2010
By Gülay Birand
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I waited in line this time… and it was suprisingly fun!
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Why are teenage girls texting more than teenage boys?
I was thinking about the story on Alexa Longueria, the 15 year old girl who fell into a manhole last year because she was too wrapped up in texting to notice, and it reminded me of my husband’s teenage cousin texting non-stop the last time we saw her. It was very interesting to see how she spent hours typing up responses when all I could think was: Why not just pick up the phone? Wouldn’t it be easier and faster simply talking? Which then brought me to my final question: What is it that makes texting so appealing to teenage girls?
It’s no secret that tweens and teenagers communicate via text messages much more frequently than adults but what I find fascinating, is that among this group, girls text an order of magnitude more than boys. According to study results from Mashable, girls send on average, 100 texts per day compared to the 30 texts boys send.
Among the various articles I read, there were a few patterns that emerged:
Teenage girls are more social than teenage boys - which leads them to have entire conversations texting. Their texts are more elaborate and they prolong conversations more so than their male counterparts. Texting is more comfortable than over the phone conversations - reducing the amount of social finesse required compared to a voice conversation. Girls feel the need to “pass notes” to each other more frequently – whether it be during a double date or in another uncomfortable social situation. Girls use texting as a way to communicate about the various interactions and provide support or exit strategies for each other. Texting is an asynchronous form of communication - which reduces the need to fill social gaps, those awkward silences are eradicated and there is more time to form a response without pressure.
Read more on the Mashable study:
http://mashable.com/2010/08/17/text-messaging-infographic/
