# Minorities use Cell Phones More? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 25, 2010, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minorities-use-cell-phones-more/551455 "2010-08-25T21:22:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lubricious\_Integument](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@Lubricious\_Integument](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lubricious_Integument)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minorities-use-cell-phones-more/551455/21 "2010-08-26T20:08:43Z")
WAG: My observation is that young people text and talk, on average, a lot more than older people. Since the survey is among cell phone users and not the public at large, one explanation is that older black people are less likely to use cell phones than older white people. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minorities-use-cell-phones-more/551455/22 "2010-08-26T20:09:52Z")
When I saw that on the news, I wanted to know the sociological answers as to why… but I have a feeling it’s not going to happen here… ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minorities-use-cell-phones-more/551455/23 "2010-08-26T20:12:04Z")
See, minorities use cell phones like this but white people use cell phones like _this_! I’m here all week, folks. Remember to tip your waitress. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minorities-use-cell-phones-more/551455/24 "2010-08-26T20:16:01Z")
Maybe they’re trying to arrange a meeting place to drink white wine? ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minorities-use-cell-phones-more/551455/25 "2010-08-26T20:24:22Z")
In my area, it’s the Mexicans that have all the cell phones. You see very few other people with them. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minorities-use-cell-phones-more/551455/26 "2010-08-26T20:25:57Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > In my area, it’s the Mexicans that have all the cell phones. You see very few other people with them. I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![wipetheclock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b19c9b/32.png) [@wipetheclock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wipetheclock)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minorities-use-cell-phones-more/551455/27 "2010-08-26T20:32:55Z")
> [@Lubricious\_Integument](#): > > WAG: > > My observation is that young people text and talk, on average, a lot more than older people. Since the survey is among cell phone users and not the public at large, one explanation is that older black people are less likely to use cell phones than older white people. Perhaps this. Maybe an urban vs. rural divide in cell use? Minorities are more likely to live in cities. Perhaps urban dwellers, regardless of race, use their cell phones more. Rural whites have them but don’t use them as much for whatever reason. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minorities-use-cell-phones-more/551455/28 "2010-08-26T20:36:16Z")
My first guess would just be that minorities are on average younger, and younger people text more and are less likely to have a landline. According to this randomly [googled website](http://www.allied-media.com/Publications/african_american_publications_.htm): > [@](#): > > There are 35 million African Americans in the United States comprising 12.7% of the total population. This population segment is expected to grow nearly twice as fast as the rest of the population over the next fifty years. The median age of African Americans is 30, nearly six years younger than the median age of the total population. I suspect the difference in average age is even more dramatic with more recent immigrant groups like hispanics, etc. Honestly there are a ton of demographic differences between whites and minorities, you could probably use them to come up with a half dozen vaguely plausible sounding reasons for the answers. I doubt we’ll know unless someone wants to pay and get the raw data from the pollng firm CNN reported on and then crunches the numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Telcontar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Telcontar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telcontar)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minorities-use-cell-phones-more/551455/29 "2010-08-26T20:38:01Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > I don’t think it’s so much where blacks are chattier, but rather that they’re probably more likely to have a cell phone as their only phone. With poor credit, it’s easier to get a cell phone than landline service. Many lower income blacks have had their landline phones cut off, judging from the urban-oriented “we’ll turn your phone back on” ads I’ve seen. Also, they’re probably less likely to have broadband internet service, so the cell phone is going to be their major communications link to the outside world. This was my first thought. Landlines come with stable addresses, stable bank accounts, and decent credit histories. To the extent that race is a stand-in for poverty, this makes a lot of sense to me. But, if i read the article correctly, it excluded prepaid cells [http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wirestory?id=11467535&page=2](http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wirestory?id=11467535&page=2) That weakens the case, somewhat. Not sure whether to entirely discount it, however. There are, of course, plenty of people who have two cell phones, one for business and one for social use. these are probably disproportionally white and might skew the data. Or those who can use their office phones for personal calls (no idea what effect that has). > [@Lubricious\_Integument](#): > > WAG: > > My observation is that young people text and talk, on average, a lot more than older people. Since the survey is among cell phone users and not the public at large, one explanation is that older black people are less likely to use cell phones than older white people. I wouldn’t have thought of that. I don’t see any particular reason to think that older whites would be more likely to have cellphones than older blacks. Do you have a particular casual mechanism in mind? > [@Serenata67](#): > > When I saw that on the news, I wanted to know the sociological answers as to why… but I have a feeling it’s not going to happen here… Just because SDMB has the maturity of an 8 year old when it comes to race is no reason to be pessimistic. The above ideas (more likely their only phone, maybe disproportionally young) are good. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were in part a cultural thing, just as increased phone use among the elderly is a cultural thing, but it’s hard to speculate without knowing usage by age and race (which is in their data, though not reported that i can find), by whether the user has another phone line (probably not in their data), and by social class (definitely not in their data). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minorities-use-cell-phones-more/551455.md?page=1)