It’s fairly common knowledge that the first ever text message was ‘Merry Christmas’. It was sent from one colleague to another at Vodafone in America. But did you know it was sent almost 21 years ago? The exact anniversary will be on 3rd December this year. We wonder whether you realise this message was sent from a computer not a mobile phone too?
- Back in 1992 mobile phones did not have keypads so there was no way of sending a text, hence the computer. Mobile phones with keypads weren’t developed until six years later
- It was another two years, in 1999, that mobile phone users could text to different networks
- Text messaging was first developed for paging people on the road
- We send about 150 billion text messages a year in the UK
- In the UK adults send an average of 50 texts a week
- Whereas 12 – 15 year olds send approximately 255 per week – that’s around 13,000 a year – and receive a similar number back
- This group check their phones on average 60 times every day
- A new language developed for texting; it is a mixture of abbreviations, numbers and letters (L8r) and using letters instead of whole words i.e. RU for ‘are you’
- LOL (Laugh out loud) must be one of the most used abbreviations
- During the Arab Spring text messaging played a big role in helping to organise revolutions
- It also helped to raise money for the Tsunami caused by the Earthquake in the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day 2004
- Similarly it was used to raise funds for Haiti Earthquake victims
- Famous texts include one from Julie Bremnes on the Norwegian island of Utoya “Tell the police to hurry. People are dying here.” It was sent to her mother during the rampage of gunman Anders Breivik in July 2011
- The message “It’s a deliberate attack – a second plane just flew into the second tower” was sent by a witness (unknown identity) during the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in New York
- Best friend Kristian Marr received a text from Amy Whinehouse at 3.10 a.m. on the night she died. It read “I’m gonna be here always xx”. By the time he read the message she was dead
- Tiger Woods is reported to have sent a last text message to porn star Joslyn James reading “You almost just ruined my whole life” just before his extra-marital activities became public knowledge
- Texts between Rebekah Brooks and David Cameron were revealed during the Leveson Inquiry in 2012. One from her read “Brilliant speech. I cried twice. Will love ‘working together’”.
But no matter which is your favourite means of electronic communication, we bet you use your mobile phone. Which is why phone insurance to protect you from all those unexpected eventualities is still important.
About The Author
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Bill Turner is a free-lance writer and technology lover. He is a self-proclaimed texting addict...
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