I remember when people started doing those on MySpace in the mid-2000s. The title of their MySpace bulletin post would say “Sad news at [our high school]” or “I’m moving to [some city]!”, or some other click-bait. Inside was the typical stuff from a chain email: re-post this if you are not ashamed of Jesus, you have ten minutes to re-post this if you want to meet your true love, etc.
Hell I remember those from Usenet in the mid 1990s. (There’s another thing that boomed and faded fast…)
One time I even received a text message like this: “if you take the time to copy and send this to ten people…”. It was 2007-ish and a fair amount of people still paid for a certain number of texts (I think most people have unlimited now). I responded somewhat harshly to that person, explaining that some of us still don’t have unlimited texting and these messages were a waste of money for us.
Wow, I have heard that on some American mobile plans, you paid for incoming calls, but also for incoming texts?
No, I don’t think so. What the poster was referring to was the fact that they were asked to copy and send a text message to 10 other people, which of course would cost money for each outgoing text.
Ah, I see, thanks.
Along with this one:
It depended on the plan, especially with those pre-paid phones. I had one phone that allowed me to read texts, but sending would cost __ cents each. With another plan, I could read and send so many for free. At one point, some of my classmates and family members had free texting with anyone who was also a Verizon customer.
Yes, I see now. I was always confused about American plans that charged you for incoming calls, because that never was a thing here in Germany, so I thought that may have also applied to texts, but what you described was the same with texts here as well, maybe 5 ct for an outgoing text. But I have been on general plans with no costs for calls and texts, but limited data for many years now, so it’s not a concern anymore. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t forward chain texts anyway, because they’ve always been stupid, no matter which medium 
. But I never got one, fortunately.
And btw., welcome to the boards!
There were some plans that charged for incoming texts. I don’t know how widespread it was, but to stay on topic I’m going to say that it was widespread for a time and then went away[1].
When I first got a cell phone sometime in the mid-90s I was on a plan that had unlimited incoming texts so I forwarded all my email to AT&T’s email-to-sms gateway. That way I’d know I got an email, and could read the first few lines. I think it cost to send texts, but text messages in the US were uncommon, so they probably thought charging for them was too much trouble.
At some point my phone plan changed, possibly when I got a WAP phone (an early form of mobile data that was about as fast as 9600 baud modem), and it went from free incoming texts to a certain limited number of incoming texts per month. There were also plans that charged for all incoming texts. At this time text usage was more common, and the era of the T9 texting.
This always seemed deeply wrong to me, because why would the carrier bother to block spam texts if they make a few cents off each one? Even when paying for calls usually the first minute didn’t count. Plus, I could get charged if my friend on unlimited plans went crazy on a group chat. MMS cost even more!
That time has gone, and I’ve not seen a phone plan that charged for domestic texts, but some niche ones may still exist.
When signing up for any text based notification it will still say “text and data rates may apply” or whatever. Texts from AT&T often still start with “AT&T Free Msg:” to signify that they are not charging for the message.
I’ll let others fact check me ↩︎
Previous post reminded me of something else that was ubiquitous, but now is gone: email-to-sms gateways, and even the sms-to-email reverse gateways.
There were really only 5 or 6, but every cell phone company had one, so I’m going to argue ubiquitous still applies. I think they’ve all been shutdown now. There are still many ways of sending an SMS from a computer, but the old free one of emailing 2125551111@messaging.att.com (or whatever it was) is gone.
Not completely gone.
I just a text to my Verizon phone from my gmail account.
2125551111@vtext.com
There were quite a few cults in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Blackburn Cult, The Oneida Community, the Agapemonites, and the Shakers I can think off offhand. All part of the “2nd Great Awakening”. They were every bit as well-known and crazy as the ones we grew up with.
Edit: I see yo mentioned the Shakers, but IMO cults were still hardly a new thing as far as ubiquitousness.
Cool, that is good to know. So we’ve gone from AT&T (Cingular), T-mobile, Verizon, Sprint, Nextel, and any others I’m forgetting all having a gateway to just AT&T, T-mobile, and Verizon still standing, and only Verizon running a gateway.
This was a thing in Europe as far back as the 1700s, so I don’t think it qualifies? The popularity of coffee houses as cultural centers in the 1950s was more a resurgence than something new.
Thank you!
Yeah, I had such a plan circa 2005, in the flip phone era. Or rather, as I recall, it was more like the lack of a plan. That is, I signed up for a voice plan only – I never really used texts back then, so I figured it wasn’t worth paying for a plan that included them. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t send or receive texts, it just meant I got charged per text if I did, both incoming and outgoing, rather than paying for a plan that included X texts per month.
I can tell you, it made spam texts especially annoying, since they actually cost me money. IIRC there was a way to just completely block all texts, but I never did that since on some rare occasions there were texts I wanted to receive. And then I got unlimited texting when I got my first iPhone around 2010, as I believe that was the only plan AT&T offered for the iPhone at the time.
the OP specifies “in your lifetime”–I wasn’t around then
Commodore computers
Gemini spacecraft
Pontiac Firebirds
Strippers. At least the ones who could be hired to come to your job or a local business and do a dance for someone’s birthday or similar, or for a bachelor/bachelorette party.
Ok, maybe they weren’t “ubiquitous” but they weren’t uncommon in the 80s. Now you never see them. My adult niece told me she had never seen a stripper in real life.