No longer just for communicating and planning while away from home or the workplace, the cell phone is increasingly a landline substitute. Recent research by the Pew Research Center suggests that 23% of Americans have only a cell phone available for making calls and another 17% have a landline but receive most of their calls on their mobile phone. For some subgroups, the findings are even more dramatic; nearly one-third (30%) of Hispanics and 49% of adults 25-29 are cell-only.
Even as cell phones become landline substitutes, adult cell users continue to use voice calling predominately for saying hi, checking in and on-the-go planning. Nearly nine in ten cell phone users (88%) say they make voice calls just to say hello and chat with someone else, and 81% of phone owners use voice calling to report where they are or to check someone else’s location. A similar percentage (81%) of cell phone users use voice calls to coordinate where they are physically meeting someone, though users are less likely to make calls for this purpose daily (26% coordinate meetings over voice calls daily, while 45% of cell phone users call to check in or to check someone’s location daily.)
Still, cell phones are not just for quick check-ins. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of cell phone owners use their cell phone to have long personal conversations with someone, though these conversations generally happen less frequently than coordinating, checking in or friendly chatting. Just 19% of cell users say they have these types of spoken conversations on their cell phone at least once a day or more often, compared with 53% of those who say they have long exchanges less often.
Fewer cell phone owners make voice calls for work: 58% of cell users make voice calls to accomplish work tasks, while a substantial number either never use their cell phone for work purposes (32%) or say the question does not apply to them (9%). Those who use their cell phone for work tend to use it relatively frequently. One third (32%) of cell phone owners make voice calls on their cell phone for work every day or more frequently, while 26% say they make those types of calls less often.
Men and women differ in the frequency with which they make different types of calls. Women are slightly more likely to place frequent calls to just say hello and chat and to report on where they are or find out where someone else is. Men are more likely to place frequent calls about coordinating where to meet others, and to make and receive calls about work. Men and women are just as likely to have long conversations to discuss important personal matters on their cell phone, though overall this is a low frequency activity for both men and women.
Adults ages 50 and under with cell phones are more likely to use their mobile phone to make voice calls for all purposes. The youngest users are generally the most likely to say that they make calls just to chat, to check in, to monitor or share their location, or to have long personal conversations. Work-related conversations on a cell phone are fairly equally shared by age, until retirement age, when the likelihood of making these types of calls declines substantially.
African-Americans and English-speaking Hispanics are also more likely to use the cell phone for all types of conversations more frequently than their white counterparts. The one exception is calls about work, where there are no differences by race or ethnicity.
Parents are also substantial users of voice calling for all reasons when compared with non-parents. They are more likely to use their cell phone several times a day for work calls, to coordinate a physical meeting, to check in with someone, to say hello and chat and to have long personal conversations.
Cell phone owners with lower education levels and from households with lower incomes are more likely than higher income users and those with greater levels of education to use the phone frequently to just say hello and chat and to have long personal conversations. Cell owners of greater income or education level are more likely to use their phone to talk about work.