Texting is becoming as widespread among older people as it is among children, with new research claiming 60% of over-45s are as likely to text as make voice calls on their mobile phones.
Texting is becoming as widespread among older people as it is among children, with new research claiming 60% of over-45s are as likely to text as make voice calls on their mobile phones.

The research claims texting is becoming more prevalent among older people, with 44% of 35 to 44-year-olds and 14% of 45-plus ages sending more than 30 text messages every week.

However, texting still remains the most popular among 25 to 34-year olds, with 40% of this age range more likely to use their mobile phones for texts rather than talking.

Conducted by Tekelec, a provider of mobile messaging solutions, across three groups; under-35s, 35 to 44-year-olds and 45-plus, the study shows texting is more popular among women than men.

More than 40% of women describe themselves as mainly “texters”, compared to 30% of men who do so. The report revealed this can partly be attributed to the popularity of TV voting via SMS, for shows such as The X Factor, with 25% of women claiming to have participated, compared with only 14% of men.

Of the 487 respondents surveyed, 80% revealed they would get a quicker response from a text message than from an e-mail or voice message. E-mail messaging is only 1% ahead of text messaging as the preferred communication method among all ages, with 33% preferring e-mail communication against 32% who prefer SMS.