Cellphone usage rates exploding

We all know smartphone usage is rising. But when you see the industry data, you still can't help but be shocked at the numbers. CTIA, the trade association representing the major wireless companies, just released its bi-annual survey tracking 2010 data submitted by the carriers. The carriers raked in $159.9 billion in wireless service revenue, up 4.8 percent from a year earlier.

Check out these other stats to see just how much a nation of wireless addicts we've become:

• Wireless subscriber connections: 302.9 million, compared to year-end 2009 total of 285 million, an increase of 6 percent.

• Wireless penetration rate: 96 percent compared to year-end 2009 rate of 91.2 percent.

• Minutes of Use : 2.241 trillion compared to 2.275 trillion in 2009.

• SMS texts sent and received: 2.052 trillion compared to 1.563 trillion in 2009, an increase of 31 percent.

• MMS texts sent and received: 56.6 billion compared to 34 billion in 2009, an increase of 64 percent.

• Data traffic on wireless networks in the last six months of 2010: 226.5 billion megabytes compared to 107.8 billion megabytes in the last six months in 2009, an increase of 110 percent.

• Average wireless bill (includes voice and data service): $47.21 compared to year-end $48.16 in 2009.

• Number of active smartphones: 78.2 million compared to 49.8 million at year's end in 2009, an increase of 57 percent.

• Number of active data-capable devices: 270 million compared to 257 million in 2009, an increase of 5.3 percent.

• Number of web-capable devices: 242 million compared to 238.4 million in 2009.

• Wireless-enabled tablets, laptops and modems: 13.6 million compared to 11.9 million in 2009, an increase of 14.2 percent.

Which of the numbers jumps out at you most?

Are you a cellphone addict?

Earlier this week, I wrote about Alyssa Rushing, a 20-year-old college student whose mom is offering to pay her $300 if she can stay off Facebook for a month and devote that time to study. Lots of people wrote to say they didn't think anyone should have to be paid to temper their passion for social networking. That story also prompted an e-mail from Dr. Nicole Radziwill, a Charlotte native who teaches about computer technology at James Madison University.

She recently wrote a book about her own "social media addiction." She wrote that she'd been checking Twitter about 130 times a day, and checking her Droid for text or Google chat messages at least 400 times a day. By her count, that was roughly 44 minutes of every day. She even dreamed about checking Twitter in her sleep! To snap out of her compulsive checking, she imposed a 42-day social media blackout on herself earlier this year. She came to realize that, in overusing Twitter, she was subjecting herself to an "interruption-driven existence." Instead of using Twitter and Facebook to keep in touch with friends, the networks themselves -- with their constant stream of random, attention-grabbing information -- became attractions unto themselves.

The experiment led her to cut back. She checks her Droid about 50 to 75 times a day now, an amount she admits some might still see as excessive. Her experience made me wonder if the problem is less about the addictiveness of Facebook or Twitter than it is about the addictiveness of smartphones. You put your entire life into the things -- bank accounts, passwords, contacts, photos, e-mails -- and you carry it all around with you in your pocket. Having all that information and communicating power at your fingertips is ... well, irresistible. I didn't think anything of Facebook myself until I got a Blackberry and saw how easy it was to keep in touch with my friends through it.

I've never kept track of how many times I check my Blackberry. But I do know when the little notification light blinks, signaling incoming e-mail, texts, or social network data, I feel compelled to check it. (I actually put the thing in my pocket when I'm busy and need to focus, just so I can't see the blinking light). If I had to guess, I'd say I check the phone about 40-50 times a day. If I didn't use the thing for work, I'd have to wonder if maybe I had a problem...

How about you? How many times a day do you check your phone? And how much is too much?

Average teen texts 50 times a day

If you're the parent of a teenager with a cellphone, this won't come as news to you, but a new study just out says youngsters ages 12-17 send and receive five times as many texts per day as adults. According to the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, teens send and receive about 50 texts per day, compared to about 10 a day for adults.

Also in the report:

• Texting by adults has increased over the past nine months from 65 percent of adults sending and receiving texts to 72 percent.
• Five percent of all adult texters send more than 200 text messages per day, or more than 6,000 a month. By comparison, 15 percent of teens use texts more than 200 times a day.
• The average adult cell phone owner makes and receives about five voice calls per day.
• Some 65 percent of adults with cellphones say they have slept with the phone on or right next to their bed.

How does your (or your teen's) cellphone usage compare to the averages here? And if you fall into the 200-plus club, what in the world are you texting about so frequently??