Survey shows youths call less, text more

The Foundation for Rural Service (FRS) released its “2011 Rural Youth Telecommunications Survey” with a key finding that only 25 percent of rural teens use 500 or more call minutes monthly, down from 65 percent in 2009. This large decrease is indicative of national trends that show teens talking less and texting more.

The biennial study had 1,967 rural youth respondents between the ages of 14 and 23.

Another interesting finding was related to cyberbullying. One in three respondents indicated that they are aware of an incident happening to a friend or acquaintance, while one in 10 has been personally involved in a cyberbullying incident.

The survey also found that nine out of 10 respondents have a cellphone, eight out of 10 use their phones for texting and more than half use their phones to take pictures. Nearly one-third use their phones to surf the web. In terms of costs, four in 10 respondents pay between $31 and $100 monthly. Seven out of 10 respondents indicated that their parent or guardian pays for their cell service and one-quarter pay for their own service, either by themselves or together with their parents.

“We continue to see the stats with rural youth telecommunications services track with national trends,” stated FRS President Tom Conry, who also serves as general manager of Farmers Mutual Cooperative Telephone Company in Harlan, Iowa. “We expect that the explosion in technology will continue to impact how rural youth communicate and socialize.”

For the full report, visit www.frs.org.