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“Kids these days! It feels like they don’t even talk anymore. All they do is text!”

While this is not an actual quote, I’m sure it’s a statement that countless parents would agree with, amazed by their children’s ability to spend hours on the phone, seemingly isolated from the outside world.

“Don’t you want to hang out with your friends?”

“Jeez mum, I am!”

According to a , a non-profit specializing in kids’ technology and media use, texting is now officially the favorite form of communication among teenagers in the United States. 35 percent of the 1,000+ 13- to 17-year-olds surveyed this year stated that texting was their favorite way of communicating with friends, surpassing in-person contact which 32 percent of respondents still prefer over virtual communication.

The percentage of teens choosing personal interaction with their friends over electronic ways of communicating dropped from 49 to 32 percent between 2012 and 2018, marking a trend that many parents view anxiously.