Text Messaging: WAN2TLK?

▪ 2006

 In 2005 some 45 billion text messages were expected to be sent by cellular phone users in the United States. The sending of messages to and from mobile phones via Short Messaging Service (SMS) had been developed in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s, and the first text message was sent on Dec. 3, 1992. An SMS commercial service was launched in the U.K. in 1995. Text messaging, also called “texting” or TXT, did not take off until 1998, however, when it became possible to send messages between the four main British cell phone networks. The number of messages sent in the U.K. grew from one billion in 1999 to an expected 30 billion in 2005, according to the Mobile Data Association. In the U.S., text messaging emerged later but expanded rapidly. From 30 million messages sent in the U.S. in June 2001, the number grew to 14 billion in all of 2003 and skyrocketed to 25 billion in 2004.

      Because tapping text into a telephone keypad was cumbersome and the number of characters in a text message was limited, a form of shorthand evolved, especially among young people. This included such shortcuts as UR for “your” or “you're,” IMHO for “in my humble opinion,” BTW for “by the way,” and CUL8R for “see you later,” as well as the employment of “emoticons,” or “smileys,” to express emotions. Even the plots of major literary works were being condensed into short text messages for use as a study aid. Meanwhile, educators were banning cell phones from the classroom to discourage cheating, and there was concern that standards of English would drop as text abbreviations entered the mainstream.

      In addition to basic communication and entertainment, texters developed a wide variety of more serious uses, including the announcement by activists of demonstrations on the streets of China, Ukraine, and Kuwait and clandestine flirting in societies in which informal contact with the opposite sex was frowned upon. In South Africa counselors were sending information on patients' use of antiretroviral drugs to combat HIV/AIDS via text message to researchers at Cape Town University. Indian politicians were being summoned by staff members via text message to vote on new laws or make up a quorum in Parliament. A new computer system was being rolled out in the U.K. that would enable text reminders of criminal court sessions to be sent to witnesses. In May 2005 AMBER Alert warnings of U.S. child abductions began to be sent by text to those who opted to receive them, while Indonesia planned to use text messaging to spread early warnings of impending disasters. Individual politicians around the world—even the pope—were making use of text messaging. Shortly after his inauguration in April 2005, Pope Benedict XVI sent a “thought of the day” text message, a service that had been started by his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, in 2003.

      With so many messages being sent, it came as no surprise that overactive texters around the world were developing a form of repetitive strain injury. The American Society of Hand Therapists warned in January 2005 that overuse of handheld devices could lead to carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis and advised users to switch hands frequently and take hourly breaks.

Alan Stewart

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