Before, we didn't have the ability to send text messages. If you wanted to communicate with somebody you had to either call them on the phone or write them a letter, it was a nightmare. Unless you lived through it you can't imagine the inconvenience of trying to talk to your friends in this way. But today, we could communicate with anybody, anywhere, anytime, and the world as we know it came to be.
A long time ago, communication was validly a long-winded and intricate process that required due diligence to laid down procedures both in letter writing and speech making. It was a time characterized by strictures in language use and strict social codes. With the passage of time and the buildup of mobile telephony, the Short Message Service or SMS materialised and voila! The social landscape was remapped for good! Based on Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology, the revolutionary concept traces its roots to Franco-German GSM cooperation between Friedhelm Hillebrand, Bernard Ghillebaert, and Oculy Silaban. It harnessed the technological capabilities of both TDMA and CDMA and enabled cross border roaming amongst mobile phone subscribers. From the first message sent on December 3, 1992 via the Vodafone GSM network, a simple “Happy Christmas”, SMS evolved to a cultural phenomenon encompassing language use from smilies to shortened words in love poems, jokes and other messages to create a dynamic cultural perspective among users. The unique device has both been credited and disparaged for creating a different kind of literacy outside the classroom and changing interpersonal communication and social interaction.