20 years ago on the 3rd of December the first officially recognised text message was sent, a rather charming if brief 'merry christmas' from one colleague to another. It is doubtful whether those involved in the inception of the idea can have had any inkling of how socially prevalent it would become. It is estimated that last year alone 8 trillion text messages were sent! Aside from just how much revenue this must generate for the networks involved, that figure is truly staggering.
People complain that we have lost the art of conversation. That we no longer communicate, that we are inhibited from interacting with each other because of all the artificial barriers in place, such as texting and the Internet. Perhaps we should take an alternative view though.
The proliferation of sites like Facebook and Twitter, the explosion of subject specific Internet forums,(catering to the individual on so many levels, e.g. the sports or teams they follow, the TV shows they watch, the fictional characters they wish to discuss and many many more), the irresistible rising tide of texting reflect one thing - we humans have an inherent compulsion to communicate and we invent ever more elaborate ways to do so. There are so many channels to go through now we are spoilt for choice. it's not that we can't communicate any more, it's more a case that we have to select what we want to discuss from a sea of information and interest.
So Happy Birthday SMS - you opened up another channel of communication - and this is a good thing.
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