July 15, 2008
Cell phone is mom-avoidance device for teens
Tweens and teens are pushing parents to adopt text messaging so they don't have to talk "live" over the cell phone, according to mobile phone executives. News.com reports.
"A typical teenager carrying a cell phone might let mom's call roll over to voicemail and then immediately text her back, "What going on?," according to Stephen Saiz, manager of consumer insight and strategy of the Walt Disney Internet Group's North American mobile division.
"Teens are pushing their parents to go on mobile because they don't really want to communicate with them directly," Saiz said here on a panel of mobile executives at the YPulse 2008 National Mashup, a two-day conference on teens and technology.
... Most tweens and teens prefer to text message and instant chat with parents and friends rather than talk directly so that they can continue doing other things like play video games with friends, he said.
The average teen, according to C&R Research, generates between 50 and 70 text messages a day, or as many as 18,000 a year."
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2008/07/020754.htm