According to a recent study by The Nielsen Company, which analyzes the cell phone bills of more than 60,000 people in the United States each month, African Americans talk and text significantly more than other races.
On average African Americans used more than 1,300 minutes of talk time per month. Hispanics were a not-so-close second with 826 minutes; Asians/Pacific Islanders were third with 692 minutes, and last were Whites with 647 minutes of talk time per month.
Text usage followed a similar pattern. African Americans came in first with 780 texts per month followed by Hispanics with 767, Whites with 566, and Asians/Pacific Islanders with 384.
Women were also on the list of top cell phone users; they talked 22 percent more and texted 34 percent more than men, and Southerners.
The reason behind the Southern states having such high numbers, is because they are usually heavily populated by the heaviest of cell phone users–Blacks and Hispanics.
The study by Neilsen did not explain why the discrepancies between races existed, but speculation is that African Americans use their cell phones more, because many of them do not have home phones. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 25 percent of African American adults only had cell phones last year.
A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that African Americans are also more likely to use the Internet on their phones, which partially explains why they are also lagging in adoption of home broadband Internet in comparison to other races.
The introduction of this study has piqued questions as to what these results mean. Many worry that there may be a causal relationship between these results and the struggling socio-economic status that African Americans already face. It is expected that more research on this topic will be done in the near future.
