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Kelsey Mattox, 13, holds her all-important cell phone during an interview Wednesday at East Hills Shopping Center. These days, teenagers may be communicating more via cell phone, text messaging and social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, than in person.

Local youths soon will engage in something many haven’t done much of all summer: face-to-face communication.

With online and text messaging communication on the rise, it hasn’t been uncommon for local children, tweens and teens to chat with friends solely through cyberspace.

Even prank phone calls have gone online.

Kelsey Mattox, 13, said that she and her friends prank people through the Internet.

“The Web site talks for you,” she said.

Friends Jessi Crowder, 12, and Kelsee Brady, 11, have definitely had more online and text communication with their friends this summer than in-person visits.

Jessi prefers texting. Kelsee prefers MySpace.

“We’ve been texting about how we’re ready to see each other again with school starting. But we aren’t ready to start learning again,” Jessi said.

Kelsee’s mother, Jennifer Brady, reflected on how much technology and children’s communication preferences have changed since she was a kid.

“In college, we finally had word processors. And my first cell phone was a bag phone,” she said.

Michael Mullen, 17, isn’t necessarily looking forward to seeing his friends in person once school begins. He prefers conversing via text message and Facebook.

Actually, he has no use for the spoken word.

“I hate talking on the phone. People will call me and say, ‘hi,’ and then there’s nothing to talk about,” he said.

At least with online and text conversations, you can say what you want to say and then avoid awkward silences and pointless small talk, he and his friends said.

But not everyone has moved toward cyber communication.

Christena Pollack, 11, doesn’t have a computer at home or her own cell phone.

So she’s spent the summer doing things that were more common before the world went wireless.

“I ride my bike a lot, play outside, watch movies and read,” she said.

Since she hasn’t had much contact with her friends, she’s ready for the return of school.

“I’ve been ready since a week after school got out,” she said. “I miss my friends. And math.”

Nancy Hull can be reached at nancyhull@npgco.com