Charles on… anything that comes along

File under “remarkable if only it were true”: the press release from BT is headlined “UK TEENAGERS PREFER INSTANT MESSAGING TO TEXT”.

For non-UK readers, this is the sort of finding that would be a dramatic turnaround from what actually happens in the real world. The UK population is mobile-mad, because pay-as-you-go means that anyone can own a phone without having to be tied to a contract. By contrast, only about 50 per cente of the population has a computer at home, compared to a far higher propotion in the US (where mobile phones haven’t reached anything like the same penetration, partly because PAYG has been slow to arrive). So for teenagers in the UK, text is a way of life.

So what can the BT press release be referring to? Read on to the first paragraph: Research out today from Broadband from BT reveals that 70 per cent of 11-16 year olds from broadband households prefer to communicate online and two thirds of these teenagers also choose instant messaging over text messaging as their preferred method of keeping in touch with friends.

Ah. With broadband penetration lying at 7.5 per cent of the population in June 2004, this means that 70 per cent of 7.5 per cent of teens prefer IM to text - that is, 5.25 per cent. Or it might be (because the wording’s ambiguous) 66 per cent of the 5.25 per cent - ie 3.5 per cent of the total, though 70 per cent (or maybe .7 * .66 = 42 per cent) of those in broadband-enabled homes prefer IM. (It would be a pity if it wasn’t even a majority of those in broadband-enabled homes, wouldn’t it? Totally torpedo the point of the study.)

And people complain about headlines in newspapers being misleading. The way of course to make the headline totally true would have been to put “Broadband teenagers prefer IM to text”, which this study does seem to show. Such a small error…

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• It would be nice if the press release didn't contradict itself within two paragraphs (6 November 2008; score: 60.82%)
• Why aren't kids buying papers? And why are people still buying the Daily Mail? Answered (12 November 2006; score: 27.9%)
• NCP: all they want is your money. More of it. (1 January 2009; score: 27.75%)

This week’s Science and Technology pages are online from The Independent: I’ve written about how Cambridge Silicon Radio’s development of a Wi-Fi chip for mobile phones threatens 3G operators, who will have to learn to love them; Michael Pollitt on the accursed spyware known as ‘Coolwebsearch’; and in science, Marcus Chown on the mystery of where the object that hit the Earth before the Moon formed came from.

More science and technology at Science and Technology news and features.

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• Nope, still no viruses on Mac OSX (despite Opener) (26 October 2004; score: 44.07%)
• Forget the chicken flu pandemic, what about the cough+cold epidemic? (14 March 2005; score: 41.82%)
• Spyware: it's just *everywhere* (2 March 2005; score: 40.25%)