Teenagers love their cell phones. A lot.

For those of us who work with teens or live with one this probably does not come as shocking news. A recent report published by the Pew Research Center, however, quantifies teen cell phone use and provides some interesting statistics.

First off, as Amanda Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist for the Pew Internet & American Life Project, concludes, the mobile phone has become the favored communication hub for the majority of American teens.

Of the many communication channels available to today's youth, teens use the following methods to contact their friends daily:

• Text messaging: 54%
• Calling on cell phone: 38%
• Talking face-to-face: 33%
• Talking on a landline phone: 30%
• E-mail: 11%

That's right--teens prefer to text their friends instead of talking to them face-to-face by a 5:3 margin.

Other interesting stats from the Pew study:

• 1 in 3 teens send more than 100 text messages a day.
• Cell phones help bridge the digital divide by providing internet access to less privileged teens.
  
• White teens typically make or receive 4 calls a day; black teens exchange 7 calls a day; Hispanic teens around 5 calls a day.
• Girls more fully embrace most aspects of cell phone-based communications than do boys.
  

What does this mean for your museum or non-profit organization?

We all need to be aware of the full power of cell phones and that they are the #1 communication outlet for today's teens.  Whether you want to provide content via cell phone audio tours, allow guests to take cell phone pictures at your site and encourage them to upload them to your facebook page, or incorporate them in other ways (or not at all) at your site is up to you.  But know that your teen visitors have cell phones and will likely be texting each other from your institution.

To see the Pew Research Center's full report on "Teens, Cell Phones, and Texting," click here.

Photo by Paul Martin Lester