As Americans, we talk a lot. These days we use our mouths and our fingers. I know this because I work for The Nielsen Company, the largest market research company in the world.
As Americans, we talk a lot. These days we use our mouths and our fingers. I know this because I work for The Nielsen Company, the largest market research company in the world.
We measure and analyze the latest trends and all consumer habits – what you buy and what you watch – including mobile and online services. We released a recent study in which we analyzed the cell phone bills of more than 60,000 mobile subscribers each month in the United States for a year.
Here’s what the study revealed: African Americans talk almost twice as much as whites, using an average of 1,300 minutes a month, compared to the roughly 647 voice minutes whites use. Hispanics are the next most talkative group, chatting 826 minutes a month, and Asians/Pacific Islanders, talk about 692 minutes. We revealed gender differences as well: women talk 22 percent more than men, gabbing on cell phones an average of 856 minutes to men’s 667 minutes per month.
Text messages now outnumber mobile voice calls three to one. And, as with verbal communication, African Americans lead the way with the most texts, sending and receiving around 780 SMS messages a month; followed by Hispanics with 767 messages. Whites send/receive 566 texts a month, while Asians/Pacific Islanders trail with 384 texts. (Although, not surprisingly, teens text the most across the board, sending or receiving an amazing 2,779 SMS messages a month!)
But, what are we saying with all of this typing? Well as an Africa- American, who happens to be a woman, with a teenager, I must confess I use a lot of my text minutes trying to communicate with my son. I’ve fallen into the habit of sometimes texting him even when he’s right in the house with me. (I know, don’t call the authorities, hear me out first). It’s just easier than yelling up the stairs. And it generates the fastest results. Any parent of a teen knows kids have selective hearing. They can’t seem to hear you calling them to come to dinner, or to come take out the trash, even though you’re yelling at the top of your lungs. But when you’re on the phone, two floors away from them, hiding in the closet and whispering because you’re trying to hold a private conversation with your BFF, your teen can HEAR you. Will even repeat, verbatim, the conversation later on, when you least expect it. So to avoid the, “I didn’t hear you mom when you were calling me to do something” syndrome I do a lot of in house texting. It’s an effective tool because the teens don’t initially know the incoming text is from you. By the time they figure it out they know that you know they received the text and are thus forced to respond. We parents have to do what we have to do, right?
In addition to communicating with our young’uns, texting gives us the opportunity to participate in our favorite TV shows, voting for our choice on American Idol or Dancing With The Stars. Texting lingo has also become mainstream, as evidenced by Usher’s summer hit, OMG! For those of us who are not necessarily in the “hip hop music loop,” texting is apparently also the subject of several popular hip-hop songs; and is, according to my young adult informants, the newest vehicle for rapping or “trash talking.” Sigh.
Let’s flip the script.
How about using all of this consumer power right at our fingertips for good? We’ve got the power. Let’s not forget the beginning of 2010, in the days and weeks following the horrific earthquake disaster in Haiti. According to Nielsen research, more than 136 million people around the world generously responded via text to at least one online campaign to assist our neighbors in that ravaged island nation. We rallied and became neighbors looking out for our fellow neighbors.
You and I can also use our consumer power locally. Does your service provider give back to your community? Do they have people who look like you and me in their ads? Does your provider have locations within your neighborhood? Do they hire from your neighborhoods? As people of color, who use mobile devices more than any other demographic group, it’s important to exert that power by choosing your service provider carefully. And in closing, no discussion on mobile texting and talking can be complete without a “preaching moment,” and this column is no different: please don’t talk or text while driving. Keep the roads safe, ok?
Cheryl Pearson-McNeil is senior vice president of consumer affairs for The Nielsen Company.
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