How long until schools are organizing D.A.R.E.-like anti-addiction programs to get kids off texting?

Kids Text Every 10 Minutes When They’re Awake

American kids under 18 send and receive roughly 2,800 texts per month, according to Nielsen, or about 93 per day. Assuming 7 hours of sleep per night, on average, that’s about 5.5 per hour spent awake, or one every 10 minutes or so. In the next two age brackets, text-message usage falls by more than half each.

But it’s people ages 18-24 who talk the most on their cellphones, according to Nielsen, averaging 981 minutes per month. These are probably the people most likely to not have landline phones, so this also makes sense.

A few more tidbits from Nielsen: African-Americans use the most voice minutes — more than 1,300 per month, on average, versus 826 for Hispanics, 692 for Asians/Pacific Islanders, and 647 for whites; and they also text the most — 780 per month, versus 767 for Hispanics, 566 for whites, and 384 for Asians/Pacific Islanders.

And women talk 22% more per month than men, on average, and send roughly 35% more text messages per month than men do. But that shouldn’t surprise anyone.