News came out today that us Brits now send more than one billion text messages a week on our mobile phones. Can you believe that?! That weekly total is the same as the total amount sent throughout the whole of 1999, which is the year I got my first mobile phone.
I passed my driving test (first time?just need to mention that) and was also off to University in the summer of 1999 and so I was given a phone as a present so I wouldn?t be out of touch. The thing was that text messages weren?t included on my phone as standard and were seen as an option for which I had to ring customer services to get them added on. At that time it was obviously viewed that not everyone would want them and the phone companies didn?t realise how big a deal texts would be? how wrong they were.
I never got into being a big texter though and will usually prefer to just give someone a call if I need to know anything as it?s cheaper, quicker, and straight to the point, although there are times when it is useful, in most cases when you really can?t be bothered or don?t need an instant reply, or (if memory serves me right) when flirting or making the initial steps into a relationship (if memory serves me right).
Mobile Phone operators must love text messages and they generally make 90% profit on SMS, and for the moment they are making a lot of money, but there are certainly much cheaper ways for people to text which will surely see the end of text messaging with the advent of phones with web capabilities (coupled with free wi-fi hotspots). For now they are safe, so keep on txting.
Funny to think that we?ll be seeing both the emergence and the decline of a technology, not just in our lifetime, perhaps even in just a decade.
Other than that, I had to smile this morning on Breakfast when they interviewed this girl on the street, she got a text mid-conversation. Made the billion very believable all of a sudden.
I?ve only ever texted a handful of times. Like you, I think it?s cheaper and easier just to call.