The line graph illustrates the percentage of American teenagers who used three methods of communication from 1990 to 2020, over a period of 30 years.
Looking from an overall perspective, it can be seen that the figure for those who utilized face-to-face communication witnessed a downward trend, while conversation which are texting and calling went up enormously. It is also evident that despite being the least popular at the beginning, text messaging became the most common means of communication in the final year.
In 1990, 70% of American teenagers communicated face-to-face which was the highest indicator. However, this way of communicating decreased gradually to 50% in 2000. While this relative number had gone down to 40% by 2010, at the end of the period this kind of communication again experienced a fall that constituted only 20%.
Regarding the other ways of communicating, we can see the opposite pattern. The percentage of teenagers in the US who used calls as a main means of communication saw a gradual and significant increase over the span, growing from just 20% to 60% – a three-fold rise. As to the proportion of teens using text messages, it started off at around a mere 5%. By 2010, there has been a moderate growth in this figure to 30%, after which, it skyrocketed to reach a peak of 80% in the final year.