Only 25 percent of Americans using SMS
America may hold the (disputed) title for fastest SMS, but we certainly aren't breaking any records in overall SMS adoption. According to a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, only a quarter of U.S. adults with cellphones have done any text messaging in the past month. This breaks down by age, as we might expect: 63 percent of all cellphone users 18-27 have used SMS, as compared to 31 percent in the 28-39 age bracket and 7 percent in the over 60 range. Maybe we're worried about repetitive stress injuries, or maybe we're just addicted to voice to voice — but nevertheless we lag far behind the Australians, who prefer SMS to Christmas cards, and we won't even go into how far we trail the Japanese and Koreans. Even African elephants apparently text more than American humans.
