25 to 29-Year-Olds Dump Landlines For Cellphones

I am not alone in my lack of a landline. Since cellphones have existed, over half of American 25 to 29-year-olds get by with only a cellphone. Their children will grow up in a household unfamiliar with the concept of tangled cords, dialing by actually touching buttons, and picking up the phone when another person in the house is on a call (for a covert listen).

The US Centers for Disease Control conducted a study and found 51 per cent of those born between 1981 and 1985 are comfortable with a wireless-only household–even as they form families.

Also of note are the 18 to 24-year-olds and the 30 to 34-year-olds. Four in 10 lived in a home that had dropped a landline. The conclusion: Whippersnappers are leading the wave of dropping the landline phone.

What the CDC found most interesting is that wireless-only household is not limited to young, unattached people. Because four out of 10 children under the age of three and a third of those aged three to five lived in a cellphone-only household, it appears a couple that lived with just cellphones stays that way when a child comes into the picture.

Not surprisingly, living a cellphone-only lifestyle becomes more rare as you get older. The study found that only one-in-20 65-year-olds relied solely on a cellphone.

However, 25 to 29-year-old Canadians are not following their American cousins’ lead. Only 11 per cent of households relied on a cellphone compared to 63 per cent of American households.

[via CBC]