For myself, the text message has become an essential element of my day. And across the entire world, people everywhere are texting like they may have their thumbs chopped off soon!
Take last year for example; in the year 2011, approximately 7 TRILLION (7,000,000,000) texts were sent worldwide!
The text has become so popular because it allows the sender to communicate with others without actually having to speak with them. We can say whatever we like, to whomever we like, wherever they are with almost no commitment to continue talking to them. It is really convenient for all of our fast paced lives.
Well where did that magical phone function come from?
The very first text message was a very simple message actually sent by a computer to a phone. It simply read, “Merry Christmas” and was sent to Richard Jarvis at the company Christmas party in England. The crazy thing about this story is that it took place twenty years ago! That message was sent December 3rd, 1992!
We have Mr. Niel Papworth to thank for our so loved messages. He is the man who sent that message from his computer, to Mr. Jarvis’ phone.
One noteworthy fact is that even though Mr. Papworth clearly sent the first text message, he is not the holder of the title, “Father of SMS”. Actually another man, Matti Makkonen is! He is a Finnish engineer who played a critical role in the development of SMS.
Both of these men deserve a humongous amount of credit for their individual contributions to our modern way of life. After all, what else would we do if we were not sending those 7 trillion texts a year?
Call each other?
No Way!
pmartell 