How many text messages do you think the average teenager sends and receives? For teen girls, it’s nearly 4,000 text messages a month. That’s about 129 messages a day! According to the Nielsen rating company, data usage is up across the board, but among teens it has tripled in just the past year. Experts call it the “Mobile Data Tsunami,” overwhelming growth spurred by unlimited data plans, and our addiction to social media. The study found that teenage boys send about 25 percent fewer messages than the girls do, but the boys use 31 percent more megabytes because they’re also more likely to use their data plans for things other than messaging, like Internet browsing, social networking, sending pictures, downloading and using the apps.

So, is there anything teenagers aren’t doing with their smart phones? Yup, making phone calls. Why? The top 3 reasons teens said they prefer messaging to voice calls is that it’s faster, easier and a lot more fun.