---
title: "III. Youth Communication Patterns: Hispanics and Non-Hispanics"
description: "Young Latinos are less inclined than their non-Latino counterparts to use mobile technologies to communicate with friends. Among Latinos ages 16 and 17, 49% say they text daily and 44% say they talk on a cell phone daily to communicate with their friends. Texting is even more prevalent among the non-Hispanic youth population ages 16 […]"
date: "2010-07-28"
authors:
  - name: "Gretchen Livingston"
    job_title: "Former Senior Researcher"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/gretchen-livingston/"
  - name: "Mark Hugo Lopez"
    job_title: "Director, Race and Ethnicity Research"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/mark-hugo-lopez/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2010/07/28/iii-youth-communication-patterns-hispanics-and-non-hispanics/"
---

# III. Youth Communication Patterns: Hispanics and Non-Hispanics

![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2010/07/2010-latinos-communiate-06.png)

Young Latinos are less inclined than their non-Latino counterparts to use mobile technologies to communicate with friends. Among Latinos ages 16 and 17, 49% say they text daily and 44% say they talk on a cell phone daily to communicate with their friends. Texting is even more prevalent among the non-Hispanic youth population ages 16 and 17. Almost two-thirds (64%) report texting daily to friends, and some 51% of non-Hispanic youths talk on a cell phone daily to socialize with their friends ([Lenhart, Ling, Campbell and Purcell, 2010](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/internet/Reports/2010/Teens-and-Mobile-Phones.aspx)).[2. numoffset="2" Race and ethnicity for teens in Lenhart, Ling, Campbell and Purcell (2010) are based upon the self-reported race and ethnicity of the teen’s parent.]

Use of internet technologies, including social networking sites and email, do not differ markedly between Hispanic teens ages 16 and 17 and teens of the same age in the non-Hispanic population. Some 28% of Hispanics report that they use social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace daily to communicate with their friends, compared with 31% of the non-Hispanic population of the same age. Email use is similarly low for both groups—9% of Latino teens ages 16 and 17 use email daily to communicate with their friends, as do 11% of comparable non-Hispanic youths.

Notable differences are apparent when looking at the use of more traditional methods of socializing with friends. While just 21% of Latinos ages 16 and 17 report that they spend time in person with their friends outside of school or work daily, for the non-Hispanic youth population ages 16 and 17 this share reaches 33%. And while only 13% of Latinos ages 16 and 17 use a landline or home phone daily to maintain contact with friends, almost one-third (32%) of non-Hispanic youths of the same age say they do so.

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**Next:** [Appendix A: 2009 National Survey of Latinos, Survey Methodology and Topline](https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2010/07/28/appendix-a-2009-national-survey-of-latinos-survey-methodology-and-topline.md)