Chat dies as Brits let fingers do the talking instead

Despite 74 million mobile phones being used in the UK today telephone conversation is dying out, according to new research from uSwitch.com, the independent price comparison and switching service. 58% of Brits are now making less than one call a day on their mobile, while 44% are making less than one call a day from their home landline. And it's not because they're making cheeky calls from work instead - 66% claim not to make any personal calls from their work phone.

Conversation could be a dying art form as people rapidly replace picking up the phone with emails, texts, social networking and tweets. According to Ofcom, 60 billion text messages are sent a year in the UK, with the average person sending 67 texts a month - as a nation only the USA, Poland and Ireland text more. On top of this, uSwitch.com's research shows that almost three quarters of households (71%) spend more than 10 hours a week online. And it's here that many are now chatting instead. Over half (55%) spend up to two hours a week emailing, while a quarter (25%) spend between 3 and 5 hours on email.

Brits have also taken to online social networking like the proverbial duck to water - over half (55%) spend time chatting and networking on forums, MSN Messenger or sites like Facebook. On average households spend two hours a week in this way, but over one in ten (12%) spend 3 to 5 hours socialising online while a hardcore 11% spend over 6 hours a week.

Brits also seem to prefer to interface rather than engage in face-to-face, with 65% spending up to two hours a week shopping online and 70% spending up to two hours banking online. While both can cut costs and time spent queuing, they also remove the need to talk. People are further limiting their opportunities for human contact by devoting hours to surfing online. On average, households spend five hours a week surfing the net, although 17% spend 6 to 10 hours and 18% spend over 10 hours in this solitary pursuit.

Jason Glynn, communications expert at uSwitch.com, comments: "We used to have time to talk, but today it's all about communicating quickly and easily with more than one person at a time. By using emails, text messages and social networking sites people feel like they are staying in touch with family and friends while still saving valuable time. In reality, they are communicating on their own terms, choosing the time and place that suits them and staying in control by limiting the chances of a lengthy inconvenient conversation.

"As the chattering classes give way to the Twittering classes this has huge implications for telephone, mobile phone and broadband providers. Consumers will want maximum flexibility to switch between texting, emailing and calling and the industry will have to respond with creative mix and match packages to allow this.

"In the meantime, people should check that their current telephone, mobile phone or broadband package still meets their needs. If you are constantly running out of texts, but still have spare minutes, or find that you are paying line rental for a phone you never use, you could be wasting money and should shop around to see if you could get better value and greater flexibility elsewhere."