What
I remember when text messages first became popular (around the start of this decade), the US (and Canada?) was one area where it did not take off.
Over the years in most of the world, text messages have pretty much taken over,
and are used for a variety of things. How it be in the US?
From what I have heard they have become more popular in the past few years. Obama sent his choice of running mate via text, and it was shown as an example of his tech-savviness. But I remember politicians in Pakistan and the UK and other places doing the exact same many years ago, I remember that in 2002, during the elections in Pak, you could send a text message and get a live update on pretty much every seat in Parliament.
I send/receive on average 150-175 a day total. I’d consider myself to be on the higher end of the scale, but not by much for my social circle(mid 30s, professional, large city)…I often see stories about teens who have several hundred a day, but there are many people who are older or less into tech that average 5 or less a day.
Basically, there are people who have embraced it, and use it extensively, and are heavy users, and those who haven’t, and use it rarely. It seems to me like people either send several hundred or more a month, or hardly any, so it’s almost like an inverted bell curve
Call me a Luddite, but I find text messaging extremely annoying.
Given the choice between spending ten minutes texting back and forth, or spending thirty seconds on the phone, it’s a no brainer to me: gimme the phone call! But my younger associates don’t seem to see it that way.
What annoys me most is that I’ve got to pay $5/month extra for a 400 message/month bundle. Many months those will go unused, but every so often my texting associates will go batsh*t and start texting me like the world is coming to an end, and if I didn’t have that bundle I’d be paying through the nose for those non-plan messages.
[sarcasm]Progress, there’s no stopping it.[/sarcasm]
Wasn’t part of it that, in the US, recipients were/are charged to receive text messages? Or maybe I am mixing it up with voice calls, where I understand the same applies?
That and, at first, you couldn’t necessarily send texts to other networks?
It depends on your phone plan, or if you even have one. My friend uses half a credit for each text she sends, and the same for each she receives.
I can send and receive unlimited texts, photos, emails, etc - to anyone on any network.
My sister in Virginia can only send and receive texts to Verizon customers (I think).
So, it depends on who you want to text and how much you’re willing to pay for it.
For me, I hate talking on the phone. I text two coworkers, my sister, my niece, my other sister, and my best friend. I will send 0-100 texts during a day, depending on who texts me, who I need to talk to, etc.
I love it.
A few weeks ago, on a Saturday, I needed to ask my boss a question. It was 7am. I didn’t know if he was awake, sober, hung over… So, I texted him. He got back to me when it was convenient for him. I didn’t need an answer right then. If he had been sleeping and I woke him up, I might not have gotten the answer I wanted. I’d rather not bother people and let them get back to me in their own time. If time is a factor, I’ll call them.
Oh, and I don’t recall ever not being able to text other networks. I got my first cell phone in '98. I don’t remember when I first started texting.
I don’t do the text messages, but I do email through my BlackBerry. Yes, I still have friends and acquaintances that send me text messages, but I answer those with a phone call. Hell, I answer almost every text message with a phone call.
In most cases, both the sender and receiver are charged. Text messaging is one of the most shameless ongoing ripoffs in the business world— they require a tiny fraction of the bandwidth required for voice calls, and yet are charged at a rate exponentially higher. Kids love them, though, which means telcos love them; they’re making money hand over fist and nobody seems to complain, especially if they’ve got unlimited messaging for $20/month or whatever the outlandish price is.
I refuse to use them on principle— I pay $5/month for 200 just so I won’t be angry if someone sends me one.
I’m not much for talking on the phone, so you’d think texting would be my thing. But up until earlier this week, I was charged 20 cents for sending and receiving them. No thanks. I finally ponied up the $5 a month for 250 texts.
If they were totally free, I’d have been sending more of them sooner.
I won’t use text messaging, just on general principle. The bandwidth for a SMS message is minuscule compared to a phone call used to convey the same message. So why is it free for me to make that phone call, but 20-cents in each direction for the SMS.
I disabled the ability to send/receive on our phones after we spent just a few bucks one month on it. And by “we,” I mean “her.”
I’m also in the US, in my mid 40’s and probably send/receive an average of 5-10 text messages a day. I appreciate the benefits; ie you get to send someone a message that they can reply to at their leisure, but the thing that i dislike about it is having your entire concentration focused on this little phone, and as has been pointed out already, it takes 10 minutes to have a 30-second conversation. And the thing that I really really hate about text messaging is people texting while they drive. This has resulted in several close calls for me on my bike. I think this is an extension of the “teenage girls always on the phone” phenomenon, because I see mostly young women texting while driving. Yes, I admit that I am more likely to notice young women than other people, and that may skew my observations, but goddamn, girls, put the phone away and drive! I don’t want you to run me over while I’m out for a bike ride.
This being the SDMB, I know that I will get lots of replies “I’m a young woman and I never text while driving. NEVER.”, but I’m reporting what I observe.
Never sent one. Never received one. My cell phone is only on when I need to make a call, which is very rarely. If someone needs to contact me, they can call the land line and leave a message. I don’t do constant accessibility.
I am with your associates. I use text messaging for the opposite reason. A phone call tends to take a lot more time going through pleasantries and going off on tangents than a simple…“what do u want 2 do 4 dinner?”
I never send any texts, and the only ones i receive are from the organizer of my softball team, if there are field or time changes, and to remind us of meetings.
The only person my wife texts is her hairdresser to confirm appointments, so that’s a couple of messages every few months. It’s actually quite hilarious to watch her text, because she steadfastly refuses to use any text-speak (c u then, etc.), and insists on texting in complete, grammatically correct sentences. A simple two sentence text message takes her about 15 minutes to compose.
I don’t do pleasantries and tangents unless I want to. If I want to do dinner with a friend, that’s the question I ask, and then say “see you then!” once we’ve decided.
Discipline, that’s what you young whippersnappers lack!
My understanding, and please someone who is more knowledgeable correct me if I am wrong, is that texting is/was more popular outside of the US for a couple of reasons:
Often phone calls via mobile phone were more expensive outside the US. Text messages are a cheaper alternative.
Certain technologies are rolled out ealier in countries like Ireland etc. which provice a smaller market to test new technologies and services.
I heard that in some places in Europe the landline phone systems were old and not very good so instead of upgrading them they put much more money into cell networks. The US took a little time to catch up to cell networks in some places in Europe.
Exactly - it may be a trifling amount of money, but the mere fact that recipient incurs a charge changes the whole economics of the situation. Here, where texting took off like a rocket, you don’t have to worry that you are costing anybody anything, even a few cents.
That’s another theory I’ve heard. Not so much that European phone systems were technically inadequate (that applies more to third world countries, some of whom have virtually skipped the landline phase altogether and gone straight to cellphones), but like Lochdale said because landlines were expensive relative to the US, so we were more amenable to an alternative.
(missed edit window)
Actually, I suppose that’s not quite what Lochdale was saying.
I don’t think mobile phone calls were particularly expensive in Europe, at the time SMS was launched, late 90s. It’s more that, compared to traditional landline servcies as typically provided by state monopolies, mobile phone services as a whole were less expensive than they were in the US, relative to landline costs there.
Hmm, that’s quite a hard idea to express, comparing two comparisons :D.
Basically, Europeans looked at cellphone charges back then and thought “hmm, that doesn’t sound too bad”, whereas Americans looked at similarly-priced services and said “HOW much?”
