Experts say phone users like Brown are part of a growing trend. As more people have grown adept at text-based messaging, and more own smartphones that can send messages via text, e-mail, Facebook or Twitter, voice chatting is becoming something of an afterthought.  This cultural shift has taken on new relevance in the wake of Tuesday's World Health Organization's finding that radiation from mobile phones can possibly increase the risk of cancer. Scientists have focused on the potential risk of brain cancer when phones are held against the user's ear.  Many mobile-phone manufacturers advise customers to keep the phone at least a fraction of an inch away from their body when it's transmitting data. Obviously, that's easier when you're texting than when you're talking.  For many people, a text or mobile Facebook message is seen as less intrusive than a phone call, which asks the recipient to interrupt what they're doing and answer.  "As phones develop and advanced features become more palatable -- better displays, software, etc. -- people are becoming more accustomed to using their phones for a range of features, rather than just voice," said Fiona Buchanan, who studies mobile trends for TNS Global Market Research, a London-based analyst firm.  Ross Gagnon, a telecommunications researcher at J.D. Power and Associates, said his company's research shows voice calling on mobile devices mostly flat or dipping, while other uses are on the rise.  In a recent survey, respondents said they'd made or received 21 calls or voicemails in the past 48 hours (a number likely inflated, Gagnon said, because many respondents used their mobile phones for work).  By comparison, they'd sent and received 55 texts, checked e-mail 15 times and browsed the Web another 10 times during that time. That's 80 "interactions," or roughly quadruple the number of voice-based ones.
Call Kimberly Brown a smartphone junkie if you want."I'm sure everyone around me will say I'm most definitely addicted," said Brown, an archaeologist at The Gibraltar Museum in Gibraltar, and