The study indicates that nearly 90 percent of Hispanics own mobile phones and 53 percent of Latinos use mobile devices to access the internet; significantly outpacing other demographic groups.
More than just a tool for staying connected, Hispanics use these cell phones to build connections and organize for political and social action.
One example is the 2009 text-messaging campaign developed by Reform Immigration FOR America and the Fair Immigration Reform Movement to promote immigration related issues. During the course of the campaign, simple message alerts sent out key information and helped increase attendance to influential rallies and hearings.
Social media accessed by mobile technology has also been a leading force for Hispanics in the fight for providing children of undocumented residents access to college education and a path to citizenship.
Thousands have expressed their support for legislative action on the DREAM act via facebook. Additionally, hundreds of sites accessible through mobile phones have been created to support this law, including many for specific states, regions and cities across the country.
“Mobile and wireless technology have helped narrow the digital divide for Hispanics,” Gus West concluded. “Our new report illustrates how important mobile technology is to the Latino community — and how Hispanic consumers will use these services in the future.”
As a comparison of the percentage of each group that access social media and mobile access, Hispanics outpace all other racial/ethnic groups in the United States. While there is no single metric that points to this, the combination of Hispanics’ use of cell phones, including extensive use of the various features they provide and to access the Internet, plus their more frequent access of social media sites, makes them the leading users of such technology. This is driven by a number of factors, including: the younger Hispanic population, the relative cost advantages of cell phones over desktop/laptop computers, the less likelihood of Hispanics having traditional landline telephones, and the higher propensity of Hispanics to be physically move across the country.
This can only mean even more engagement from the Latino population here in the US; we will continue to mobilize here and abroad politically, educationally and socially.