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What % of communication takes place digitally today (over the phone/cell phone, text, internet, social media, etc.)?
Hello and thank you for your question about digital communications. The short answer is that a lot of focus and research has been around teens and millennials in considering percentage of communication. I’ve determined that the information you requested is not publicly available because the studies have been centered around workplace preference, but not actual use. The studies that have been conducted are often outdated, and not comprehensive regarding frequency of use. However, I was able to learn that when given a preference, Millennials will still opt for face to face communications over email or text. Below you will find a deep dive of my research and methodology.
METHDOLOGY
We began by locating reports, surveys, and data points that address communication styles. After, we turned to media stories and publications in hopes of uncovering more cited research and survey points for collecting quantitative data.
We found information regarding the percentage of use in communicating, but no comprehensive report covered the use of communication across all ages and spectrum. There are tons of marketing reports and surveys geared towards understanding how much time is spent across digital devices to consume content, but very little geared towards comparing face to face, or written contact like letters compared to digital counterparts.
Even more concerning is that many of these studies surveyed with questions about preference, but did not show actual use. We also found that research was often focused on other age groups to explain workplace behavior, not addressing the overall trends in life. Lastly, there is very little research done on additional and older generations, as well as their communication style. In this sense the information is rather limited. We'll outline our findings below but be aware that they cannot answer the full question of what % all human communication now takes place online and/or digitally.
Helpful Findings
Supposedly, "51% of 18- to 34-year-old workers still prefer to communicate with colleagues in person, far exceeding the share who prefer e-mail (19%) or text (14%)." The full report can be found here.
According to one source, only 1 in 4 people tend to communicate more online than in person. But according to this report, 51% of teenagers themselves would prefer to communicate digitally instead of face to face. A reversal of the findings from the Bently study. In the UK "90% of 16 to 24-year-olds exchange texts with friends and family at least once a day, followed by social networking at 74%, mobile phone calls at 67%, and face-to-face contact at 63%." This particular publication however drew sources from 2012, and 2015 so the information is a tad outdated. These percentages also don't provide frequency statistics to help determine the full comparison of digital versus in person communication.
A report by Pew states that 33% of all teens talk face to face, across ages 12-17 at least once a day. This was a smaller percentage than those who utilized texting and calling on their cell phone every day. But it outpaced talking on a landline, social network use, instant messaging, and email. This study is from 2010 so this is apt to have changed among this age group with the rise of social media sites such as Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, etc. There have been no follow up studies on this subject that is more up to date.
Possible continued research
In understanding what types of information are and are not publicly available on this topic, I’ve suggested a few other routes you may be interested in researching:
What percentage of the global population has daily internet access?
What is the percentage of the global population that has a mobile phone that has internet access?
Conclusion
To wrap it up, after searching extensively through publications, surveys, and media sites, a direct answer to your question is not publicly available because there is limited information tracking non-digital communication frequency. However, I learned that face to face contact is preferred, even if it is underrepresented in actual use. If you’d like to continue research on any of the other topics I’ve outlined above, just let us know!