SOCI OLOGY IN S WITZERL AND Socio logy of the Mobi le Phone Patterns of multi-channel communication among older teens

Based on a study of 1440 Swiss teenagers in 2003, highly complementary (instead of substitutive) relationships are found between the usage of various technical communication media as well as between media usage and face-to-face interactions. Males seem particularly prone to use all media channels in a complementary fashion. Among both genders, there is a particularly strong complementarity between the fixed and the mobile phone. When partners meet rarely, the communicate more by written than by oral media, particularly by SMS. By comparing older acquaintances with more recently created interpersonal relationships, it is found that the mix of media channels doesn't change significantly over time, except that the exchange of Short Text Messages declines. While the closeness of a relationship seems to be positively affected by the frequency of meetings and fixed phone calls, mobile contacts and Emails don't seem to make any consistent contribution.