Half of Us Text the Same Person 90% of the Time

Scientists trying to identify trends that show how modern technology is influencing communication have discovered that 50% of people text the same person 90% of the time. Further, a text message session, with much to-ing and fro-ing of texts, can last between two and twenty minutes. After this time, replies will be less frequent, or cease. Look at the conversations you have with your friends. This pattern can be seen in much face-to-face communication, too. When you sit and have a chat with your friends, there is usually a brief burst of initial interest in the topic, followed by diminishing interest and then a change in topic, or brief gap of no conversation, where everyone goes back to eating, drinking or playing their computer game. So, it seems that while the medium may be changing, our basic communications are pretty steadfast.


Findings have been released for one-to-one SMS conversations. Trends for group chat, online messenger and social networking communications have yet to be researched.