The bar chart compares the percentage of people from the 18-30 age group who preferred three different communication methods. Figures are given in three years (1996, 2006 and 2016).
Overall, the proportion of youth using landline to communicate decreased significantly, while the figures for both mobile phone/apps and social media rose over the period shown. Additionally, mobile phones/apps saw a sharper increase, and this method was also used to contact by more people than social media over time.
In 1996, landline was the most popular method of communication, with approximately 77% of young people using it. However, after a decade, the percentage of young people using landline was seen a dramatic drop, less than twice as much as the year 1996’s figure. Eventually, landline ceded its dominance to mobile phone/apps and became the least popular communication method in 2016, with just about 10% of people using.
In contrast, mobile phone/apps and social media experienced a reverse trend throughout the period. It is noteworthy that the gap between these two methods was clearer over time, as the proportion of youth using mobile phone/apps increased more steeply. In 1996, with a roughly 2%-gap, the figure for mobile phone/apps did not show too much different with social media. Meanwhile, in 2006, the gap was about 25%, and rose by nearly 5% in 2016.