Are you a texter or a talker?

A study conducted by Nielsen on behalf of the Wall Street Journal shows that texting is on the up and talking in decline.

The stats are quite staggering:

Nielsen, at the request of The Wall Street Journal, analyzed cellphone bills of 60,000 mobile subscribers and found adults made and received an average of 188 mobile phone calls a month in the 2010 period, down 25% from the same period three years earlier. Average monthly "talk minutes" fell 5% for the period compared with 2009; among 18- to 24-year-olds, the decline was 17%.

...

For anyone who doubts that the texting revolution is upon us, consider this: The average 13- to 17-year-old sends and receives 3,339 texts a month - more than 100 per day, according to the Nielsen Co., the media research firm. Adults are catching up. People from ages 45 to 54 sent and received 323 texts a month in the second quarter of 2010, up 75% from a year ago, Nielsen says.

[poll id="560"]

The reason why is pretty clear - texting is fast and to the point, while voice calls are a huge time suck [humor]. Talk may be cheap, but time isn't.

Personally, this matches my cellphone usage. I seem to go through a few hundred text messages and around 500MB of data a month, while doing very little actual talking. When I'm away from base my text and data usage skyrockets (by as much as 500%), but voice calls remain pretty constant.

So are you a texter or a talker? Or if you're cellphone just another conduit to the web?

PS - Oh, and you know how you shouldn't text while driving? Well, it seems texting and walking can also be pretty hazardous to your health.