Average teenager sends over 3,300 texts every month

A new Nielsen study tracked data usage from the monthly cell phone bills of more than 60,000 mobile subscribers from April 2010 to June 2010. The findings are off the charts: teenagers are sending more texts than ever, averaging 3,339 per month (or six texts every hour he or she is awake).

This is double any other age group, including 18 to 24 year-olds, who send about 1,630 texts in any given month (three texts every hour of being awake). Since 2008, the main reason teens buy a cellphone has changed: safety used to top the list, but now text messaging is the main reason.

Although teenagers send the most texts, they don't talk on the phone much; they use fewer minutes than any age group except adults 55 and older. Voice calls among teens were down 14 percent. Adults in their 20s and early 30s tend to use the most minutes.

In almost all the age groups, there is a gender gap: females, especially teenagers, exchanged significantly more texts and used more minutes communicating. Female teens received an average of 4,050 texts per month and talked an average of 753 minutes per month, while males the same age received only 2,539 texts and talked for 525 minutes. In data usage, however, male teens used an average of 75MB of data, while females logged 53MB. In short, males use their phones more as gadgets, while females use them more as communication devices.