Mobile text messaging could become extinct within a generation as millions of young people turn to other forms of electronic communication.

Teenagers are increasingly using instant messaging from mobile phones and social networking sites such as Facebook.
Experts predict the amount of texts sent in the UK will drop by 20 per cent in the next two years.
It comes as teenagers and students are increasingly using a BlackBerry, instead of iPhones and other smartphones, because the device has a free BBM messenger.

Sales in the phone, that was once the preserve of the corporate boardroom, have  increased six-fold during the past year, mainly due to being taken up by 16 to 24-year-olds.

A study for broadband provider TalkTalk found only 51 per cent of Britons in their teens or early 20s say email is their first choice of communication.

Industry experts believe that if this trend is followed into adulthood then text messaging could disappear within a generation.