subject: A Brief History Of Text Messaging [print this page] It only seems like yesterday since text messaging was invented. But since then, it has taken the world by storm.
Since its invention, billions of wireless messages have been sent between young and old people alike. Whether you look at it as a positive or negative force on the world, one cannot deny that it has altered the course of how people communicate with each other.
Where did this type of communication come from, and how long has it been around? Will it continue to evolve and become a powerful force in communication, or is it just a fad that will fizzle and fade out like a one-hit wonder on the radio?
These and other questions will be answered as I seek to take a little piece out of history and delve into the advent of text messaging. Here are some fun facts about this newfound craze in communication:
Text messaging was initially born out a need for businesses to get a hold of customers. They needed a way to alert customers of important information without having to call thousands of people one by one on the phone.
The solution to this problem came out of Finland. In the 1980s, Matti Makkonen, a civil servant living in Finland invented SMS (Short Message Service), which allowed companies to send mass bits of information on the phone to their customers.
It was only a matter of time where this exchange changed from business-to-person to person-to-person messaging. Nearly a decade later, people would be able to communicate with each other wirelessly.
The first text message ever sent was transferred from a computer to a mobile phone in December 1992. Neil Papworth sent a message to his friend in England that simply said "Merry Christmas".
Neil had to send this first message over a computer, because phones did not have the capability of typing at this time. Eventually, phone services made it possible for two phones to communicate by typing directly into the phone.
The common length for the standard phone message quickly became 160 characters (Twitter stole the idea!). This length was standardized by a German man named Friedhelm Hillebrand.
As a committee chairman for the Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM), he was given the task of figuring out how many characters were sufficient to write a coherent and meaningful message on a phone. After painstakingly looking at other forms of communication, he and his team found that most messages could be said in fewer than 160 characters.
So the 160-character limit was born. This enabled wireless companies to have enough bandwidth for each of their user's phones.
In the late 90s and the early 00s, text messaging became a worldwide sensation and has been a colossal force for wireless company revenues.
Despite its worldwide popularity, it has received a landslide of negative publicity for problems that have arisen because of it in the last decade. Many believe that it is being overtaken by face-to-face communication because it is easier, which some say is damaging crucial social skills of those who text.
It also has led to more serious problems. Consider the dangers of sexting or texting while driving.
The use of sexting, or sending nude or erotic photos to someone else via cell phone, has spread like wildfire among the teens of the world and has turned into an immense worldwide crisis. The problem has become so serious that a sexter can be prosecuted for obscenity or child pornography charges.
Texting while driving has also become a hot debate in the media because of its danger and how many lives it has cost. With traffic accidents claiming more than 5,000 lives each year, texting only increases those chances, because it slows reaction and impairs driving abilities just as alcohol does.
In the last several years, governments have passed strict legislation on the prohibition of texting while driving. While it does not stop the practice, the legislation hopes to curb this deadly trend.
What does the future hold for this sweeping force in communication? The end of the century made it look promising, but now society is starting to find the downsides to this new technology.
The future of it will only become more complex as phones are becoming increasingly capable of high definition photos, videos, and music files to each other. As for now, we can be sure that it is here to stay as an important facet of our changing world.
