About 93 percent of teens in the United States are now online, and they are so wired that some 64 percent have used the Internet to post everything from videos to essays, up from 57 percent at the end of 2004.

But the No. 1 method of communication for the most wired generation ever? It's still the telephone — as in land lines wired to a wall, says a new report on teens ages 12 to 17 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which tracks the nation's online behavior.

Teens don't drop old technologies as they add new ones, "they just communicate more," says Pew's Amanda Lenhart. "And more frequently."

Teens choose the proper tool for each task, be it cell phone texting at a noisy party, Facebook for a quick hello, instant messages for multiple conversations, and seeing friends in person to, well, talk.

And some 28 percent of online teens — mostly girls — are super communicators, adept with a wide variety of tools.

Teens' least favorite tool across the board? E-mail. Teens also use blogs, social networking profiles and their own photos and videos to reach out more broadly to people they know and, less often, to strangers. (Some 66 percent of teen social networkers restrict access to their profiles in some way.)

The report finds that 28 percent of online teens have created their own online journal or blog, up from 19 percent in 2004; 33 percent create or work on Web pages or blogs for others, about the same as in 2004; and 39 percent share their own artistic creations online, up from 33 percent in 2004.

Blogging is still dominated by girls; 35 percent of all online teen girls blog, compared with 20 percent of boys. But boys rule when it comes to posting videos; 19 percent of online boys have posted videos, versus 10 percent of online girls.

The Internet gives teens the kind of feedback they crave, says Anastasia Goodstein, author of "Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online." "Teens have always wanted validation from their peers and even from adults. It's part of figuring out who they are. Putting up photos or videos and getting comments is incredibly validating."

The study was based on a telephone survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from Oct. 23 to Nov. 19, 2006. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

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