ICBW, but txt msging seems like a BD. Just ask Jameson Reynolds.
"It is a big deal,” says the 24-year-old self-proclaimed "nerd.” The Mustang man, an audio book producer, uses text messaging on his high-end nerd-phone to keep in touch with friends and conduct business.
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"It is really helpful,” Reynolds said. "There are just certain times, certain places you have to be, where you really can't talk on the phone.”
Text messaging began in 1992, according Airwide Solutions, which claims to have sent the first one: "Merry Xmas.” Since then, the common meaning of "TM” has gone from the meditating-through-walls thing to the thumb-numbing method of communicating. TM, the worldwide wireless conversation of typing — often using acronyms, abbreviations or other, sometimes tortured, shortcuts on tiny buttons on a cell phone — has gone mainstream.
Each day, Americans punch out more than 1 billion text messages. "It's incredible,” said Joe Farren, spokesman for CTIA, a trade organization for the wireless industry.
"It's not just a trend among the youth,” he said. "It's quick, it's efficient, and there's the cool factor associated with it.”
Businesses use text messaging to promote themselves and their products, urging phone users to "vote” using TM "short codes,” four- or five-digit numbers. The short codes are used to conduct polls, offer instant prizes, generate feedback and generally hook up with millions of potential consumers. Families use TM to keep in touch.
Still, nothing compares with TM use among the younger generation, who have never known a world without wireless. The young seem to text nonstop, texting while they walk, texting in the car, texting comments to each other about individual plays while sitting at football games.
Jean Warner has seen kids sitting at social events busily thumbing their thoughts into the ether. “They’ll have their cell phones under the table, and they’ll be talking to someone across the room,” she said.
Even for Warner, though, who’s in her 60s, texting is a “lifeline.” The Oklahoma City woman travels often to Kenya for church missions, where land-line phone service is almost unheard of, and Internet service is undependable. Texting, which uses much less bandwidth and is cheaper than cell phone voice calls, is the best way to keep in touch with those back in America, she said.
“It’s kind of reassuring to know you can send a text message home,” she said.
Texting means the recipient doesn’t have to answer immediately, she said, which is good because, with an eight-hour time difference, a message might arrive in the middle of the night in the U.S. And since it’s usually cheaper to initiate a call from the U.S., she said, Warner simply texts “Pls call me,” and waits for a voice reply.
Texting is cheaper for the amount of data you can impart, although TMing can become a habit.
“Some people are weird and get addicted to it,” Reynolds said.
But for most, TM’s just the natural next step in communication after forums, MySpace, email and blogging. “It’s just easier to share feelings and thoughts uninhibited,” Reynolds said.
As with any behavior that becomes pervasive, TM has its detractors and its problems. Physical ones, for instance. TM can result in RSI, repetitive stress injury, or as it’s known in the tech world, “Blackberry thumb.” Orthopedic specialists say excessive texting can cause tendonitis or aggravate arthritis.
A survey by Virgin Mobile concluded that texting caused 3.8 million cases of RSI each year in the United Kingdom, where 93 million text messages are sent every day, which is one-tenth that of the U.S. number. Texting also has educators, researchers and others debating its possible effects.
A report by education officials in Ireland concluded that TM’s shorthand mangling of spelling, punctuation and grammar “seems to pose a threat to traditional conventions in writing.” It blamed texting for poor spelling and said the rapid-fire pace of texting was even crippling students’ ability to think analytically and in depth.
Similar concerns are being aired in America. However, other researchers say those who texted frequently performed better in school.
“The conclusion has been that this technology is ruining their language, but nobody has any data,” researcher Beverly Plester told the British Broadcasting Corp. “Those children who were the best at using ‘textisms’ were also found to be the better spellers and writers.”
Whatever the effect, you probably shouldn’t get too concerned. With the pace of technological change accelerating, today’s trendy activity could quickly morph into just another remember-when mement.
“You can bet the ranch on the fact that innovation will continue and something always comes next,” wireless spokesman Farren said. “What that is, I don’t know.”
Not matter what, we’ll be LFTI.
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