Landlines Go the Way of the Dinosaur

We still pay for a landline in or house - it's part of the Verizon FiOS triple-play. But I would have to say that more than 99% of the calls we make or take are on cell phones. With a 14-year old daughter and unlimited text messaging on our accounts, we're even starting to skew away from calls to SMS. Personally, I like the immediacy of texting (versus email) and it's less of a distraction than taking a call. In fact, I've got two SMS sessions going right now - one with my daughter and one with my sister - and I'm writing this - pretty cool! Have you abandoned your landline yet? Take the poll on the sidebar to the right. Grown Up Digital » More and more young people abandon landline phones

Young people continue to abandon landline home phones and use their cell phones as the only means of voice contact with others, according to a report released this week by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Slightly more than 31 percent of 18-24 year-old have a cellphone only, and this number climbs to almost 36 per cent for those 25-29. Older people are much less likely to have only cell phones, with just 9 percent of those 45-64 and 3 percent of those 65 and up living in such households.

Nearly two-thirds of all adults living only with unrelated adult roommates (63.1%) were in households with only wireless telephones. This is the highest prevalence rate among the population subgroups examined.

The number of residences that use cell phones only has continually increased in the past three years, and for 25-29 year-olds the current figures are more than double the number in the same period in 2005.

Stephen Blumberg, author of the report, told the Associated Press that the trend to cell phones only may increase because of the recession, as cell phone prices decline and features improve.