U of Pennsylvania Study Shows People Value Email and SMS Texting Most

May 2, 2011 by Jessica Zorawski

An interesting new study done by the University of Pennsylvania shows how consumers value their favorite communication mediums, including email, texting, cell phone calls, and Facebook.

The study divided students into groups and out of the 4 communication mediums listed above, asked them which of those tools they would go without for a week. Once the student chose, he or she were banned from using it for a week. Next, the study participant was asked how much, in monetary value, he or she would like to be compensated for the ban.

“The survey of 84 students ages 18 to 22 found that they thought $44 would be “fair compensation” for going without Facebook for a week — compared with $99 for email, $85 for texting and $73 for cellphone calls. One tool — instant messaging — was identified as less valuable, coming in at $27 for a week.” (Wall Street Journal, How Long Could You Go Without Facebook?)

The reason for this was that students said that they only communicated with acquaintances on Facebook, while texting and email was used for connecting with closer friends and family. For students, email is clearly most important as they work on papers and projects in groups and they need to be able to send large files. However, as a communication tool, it’s clear that texting still reigns, shown here by its compensation value of $85.

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Tags: text messaging, texting, University of Pennsilvania

Posted in: Info, Mobile news