Cell Phones Not Just for Talking Anymore

Dec. 20. 2011— -- Somebody might want to think about giving cell phones another name, after a new survey of people in 21 countries found that the little devices are commonly used for more and more purposes.

"People really are using their cell phones for way more than just phone calls now," said Richard Wike, associate director of the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, which conducted the survey.

The Global Attitudes Project surveyed 21 countries to find out how people world-wide are using cell phones today. Most everyone makes phone calls, but a huge number of people use them for other tasks.

"In particular, they're texting," Wike told ABC News.

Fully 75 percent of the cell phone users in those countries say they use their smart-phones to send and receive text messages.

Texting is most common among the poorest nations surveyed. For example, 96 percent of cell phone owners in Indonesia and 89 percent of people in Kenya say they use their phones for texting.

Half of the people in the global survey say they take pictures with their cell phones. The Japanese are the most likely of all the people surveyed to do that: 75 percent say they use their phones as cameras.

Close to a quarter of all those surveyed say they use their phones to surf the web. In some countries the number is higher.

"In places like Israel, Japan and the United States, you've got more than four-in-10 cell phone owners who say they do use their cell phone to access the Internet," Wike said.

In broadening the survey, Wike also says that social networking is very popular around the world, but that "it tends to be more common in wealthier countries."

He said the reason for that is that people have more access to the Internet in those more developed nations.

"Germany, France and Japan are the only countries polled where more Internet users say they do not go on social networking sites than say they do," according to the Pew survey.

Most of the people who are comfortable with and who use digital technology around the globe are under 30 years old and well educated.

"The more educated are more likely to use their cell phone for different purposes and more likely to engage in social networking," Wike said.

This digital multi-tasking, Wike said, is only going to grow.

"As cell phone technology spreads across the globe, as more and more people are able to access the Internet through their cell phones, we're going to see a variety of uses, and this is going to become more and more common globally," he said.