Text Messaging Supplants E-mail for College Students

A new study from Ball State University says that text messaging on mobile devices has overtaken e-mail and instant messaging (IM) as their main form of communication. Ninety-seven percent of students surveyed reported sending/receiving text messages as compared to 30 percent for e-mail and 25 percent with IM.
Smart phones now account for 49 percent of mobile communication devices on college campuses, up from 38 percent in October 2009 and 27 percent in February 2009, says BSU's Michael Hanley, director of the university's Institute for Mobile Media Research.
Hanley has conducted 11 surveys of mobile device usage since 2005 that includes a total of 5,500 college students.
"College students are increasingly adopting the smart phone as the core mobile communication and entertainment device for their hectic lifestyles," observed Hanley. "In the few years since instant messaging leaped from the computer to the cell phone, a new mobile lifestyle has evolved for college students. And except for studying, the computer is quickly being left behind."
Other findings from the survey:

• The use of cell phones is nearly universal on campus, with 99.8 percent of students having a cell phone.
• Nearly nine in 10 students with smart phones access the Internet from the device, versus less than half with a feature phone.
• Cell phone camera usage has soared, with 97 percent of smart phone owners taking and sending photographs while 87 percent take and send video.

"In the next few years, I see smart phones saturating the collegiate market, but at the same time, devices similar to the iPad will become increasingly popular among young people," Hanley says. "College students are the first to adopt new types of communication technologies. I think the iPad and similar devices may change the way they communicate yet again as the technology evolves."