txt mssgng?

[Crusoe]

When text messaging accounts for something like 5% of the revenue of the major mobile operators calling it a “silly fad” is an underestimation and then some.

Sure, some people like it because it’s gimmicky, but I - and many people I know - prefer it to calling on a large number of occasions because of the reasons outlined above. A lot of the mobile operators thought it was a fad that would die out, and it hasn’t ( brief history ) -

They [the mobile operators] tend to explain the appeal in terms of practicality. Nokia’s UK business development manager, Mark Squires, thinks it has got a lot to do with cost (you can send a text message anywhere for a trip-to-a-70s-sweetshop-sized 10p), and with what he calls the “control factor” (as in, you get to read it if, and when, you want).

Ericsson’s senior product manager, Colin Ellis, agrees. He also points out that they have made mobile communications accessible to the deaf for the first time, and adds that the popularity “is also down to them being so discreet and personal; no one need know when you’re sending or reading a text message, even if you’re in a meeting. And you don’t have to use the manual to learn how to do it. We’ve realised that however good a service is, if people have to read the manual in order to use it, it won’t happen.”

…

What explains it is vague, and hard to pin down; part of it must be that they seem sent to solve so many of our modern manners-conundrums. Such as: what to do when you want to ask someone something without getting sucked into the pleasantries-and-gossip-vortex? Or when you’re on the bus and can’t wait, but wish to avoid “I’M ON THE BUS”-syndrome? Or when you wish to ensure that the forgetful friend you’re phoning has the directions to your house written down correctly? There’s also the way they pander to the deep-rooted, but rarely acknowledged, human love of making up stupid languages (“Gr8 2 CU”, etc). And, of course, there’s that “kind of flirty thing”.

It is not only anecdotal evidence that suggests people have created a new kind of non-contact foreplay with text-messaging. Last year, 44% of mobile-phone users questioned in a survey for Nokia said that text messages meant they told their partner they loved them more often; 53% used it to apologise after rows; and a saucy 18% suggested they might, ahem, “make love” later that evening.

[kanicbird]

I think we’ve made a decent point on why sms is useful.

also this statement

Especially considering that one could show a teensy bit of patience and wait till you got off the train.

Shows me that you are overreaching to find something, anything. When you get off a train you are:
1 usually in a noisy crowded station
2 trying to get somewhere
3 carrying things

and just to put another three nails in that coffin, when you are one the train you:
1 normally have not much to do and are seated
2 in a crowd where phone use would be rude
3 traveling throught cells that reduce or elimiate the quality of cellular calling.

It’s also very good for someone who wants to get a message to you even if it’s to call them back. If I get a call when I don’t want to take it I let it go to VM. If I don’t reconize the number I don’t check till it’s totally convineent for me to do so (even if I know the number unless it’s from my wife I will wait). With a text message they can send me a note like “call me asap - chuck” which will get a return call sooner then VM.