Likely thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and the way they facilitate on-the-fly email and instant messaging — as well as widespread social network use — text messaging is no longer the growth cottage industry it once was. According to researchers, adults sent and received a median average of 10 texts per day this spring, the same figure as last spring. The previous fall, the median average was five per day.

Pew Internet found slight growth in the mean average of texts sent daily from 2010 to 2011, but reports that the increase was miniscule when compared to the growth between late 2009 and early 2010.

Pew found that texting is most popular with those aged 18 to 29 — 95 percent of users in the age group text, averaging 88 messages a day — while those 65 and older send only five per day. Also, Pew reports that texting isn’t necessarily a replacement for talking on the phone, because the heaviest texters also made the most phone calls.

How Americans Use Text Messaging [Pew Internet via Wired]

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