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Hppy BDay SMS :-)
By Richard Nantel | December 12, 2007
Short message service, or SMS, is now 15 years old. According to Wikipedia, the first commercial SMS message was sent by a Neil Papworth to a Richard Jarvis on December 3, 1992. The text of this message was “Merry Christmas.”
Sent today, that message would more likely have been “Mrry Xms.”
SMS messaging has dramatically changed the written word. Limited to 160 characters, human ingenuity and adaptability have created an entirely new way of writing. As in Shakespeare’s day, spelling is no longer that important. It’s all about getting your message across using the least possible number of characters. Although you could certainly spend another ten cents on a second message to complete what you wanted to say, you’d be a loser by not being able to get the message across in one.
Typing an SMS using a cell phone key pad is no simple matter. At times, you need to hit the same key multiple times to scroll to the letter you need. This has spawned SMS competitions that reward the fastest and most accurate text messagers. (If you’re older than 16, don’t even bother entering. You don’t stand a chance of winning.)
Although there are no limits to the length of a typed phrase using e-mail or writing on someone’s wall in Facebook, SMS-talk is everywhere.
An SMS version of the Bible has been published:
“In da Bginnin God cre8d da heavens & da earth”
There are also SMS poetry competitions:
“Pls, stop sendg msgs2ths
no, i am not linda,
I hv not slept w/yr sis,
+i wd nvr call any1’s ma a slag.
Gd luk w/viag.
Luv, yr wrong no. xxx”
As mobile learning takes off, it’s going to seem odd to have unabbreviated, correctly spelled text appearing on these small screens. Hip instructional designers may want to start working on their feedback messages:
“Uv passed da tst. Pls muv on to da nxt modul.”
Topics: Mobile learning, SMS |
January 16th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
SMS may be 15 years old. Care to guess what year the first wireless phone call was made (give or take five years)?
Write down your hunch, then see how you did.
January 16th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Dave: I seem to recall movies from the 1980s where people were speaking into what appeared to be shoe boxes but were actually cell phones. So, I’d say 1985. Am I in the right ballpark?
January 16th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Richard:
There’s a link embedded in “see how you did,” above.