Text messaging has certainly made our lives a whole lot easier, and last Sunday it turned 25. It is hard to believe it has been a quarter of a century since the first ever text message was sent.
In 1992, Neil Papworth, a software engineer, sent the world’s first SMS. And what did this text message say? “Merry Christmas”! This text was send to an executive working at Vodafone.
From humble beginnings, it is certainly very interesting to see just how far text messages have become. Now there are simply billions of texts sent every day, right around the world.
Text messaging is without a doubt one of the easiest ways to communicate with others. Especially since the smartphone was introduced (no long needing to press number 7 four times for an “s”).
The text message has paved the path for other platforms of communication including social messaging services like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Snapchat, that instead of using a phone service provider, all a user needs is internet connection.
In recent times text messaging has evolved further with the assistance of emojis. There is even a movie based on the latest evolution of text messaging; The Emoji Movie. Emojis are little pictures that allow you to communicate with others without the need to even type a word.
Text messaging has certainly become a hybrid form of communication. It is virtually instant communication and it is the go to choice for many people right around the world when looking to talk with someone who isn’t in the same room as them.
Many experts believe that text messaging is a mix between speech and writing. Whether you think it is a good thing or not, text messaging has helped human reach another stage of language evolution.
With SMS people can now be in the moment and they are always on and connected to whoever they desire to be connected with. It will be interesting to see what the next 25 years holds for text messaging and how it will evolve with the rest of the digital world.