| By :
Paul Wise
Since the recent explosion in technology especially for no contract cell phones during the past decade or so, more and more gadgets have sunk their teeth into cultural lexicon and shaped the way communication in modern society has functioned. The iPod has made CDs virtually obsolete. The Kindle has taken literature out of the paperbacks and onto the digital screen. GPS has replaced the atlas. But nothing has an impact quite like the advent of text messaging for mobile phones and even the no contract cell phones. Virtually every cell phone on the market is capable of text messaging, which as of 2007 is the most widely used mobile data service in the world with over 2.4 billion users. In Scandinavia - Sweden, Norway, and Finland - over 85% of the population uses text messaging. It's easy to see why text messaging has become so prevalent so quickly. All service providers offer some form of text messaging and the feature is even available on no contract cell phones. Most service providers offer a flat rate for texts, while others offer unlimited texting, while no contract cell phones often charge on a per use basis. This allows virtually anyone with a cell phone to communicate on the fly 160 characters at a time, without having to devote the time or attention to holding a verbal conversation when it may be undesired or uncalled for. Users can receive a message and reply to it at their leisure and typically needn't fear receiving a text during situations where it may be inappropriate to communicate verbally. So prevalent is text messaging, that an entire system of etiquette has developed around the technology that is very different and stands wide apart from that expected during a regular phone call. Responses need not be immediate unless otherwise noted, and there is no harm in texting someone when they are unable to speak with the intention of leaving the message for them to read later - a practice much more practical and succinct than leaving a voice message. Text messages are also usually saved and much easier to reopen for quick reference than a voice message, so that texts with important information such as directions or reminders can be consulted on the fly. Users can even send pictures and often time audio files such as music or sound bites along with texts. Text messaging has had such an impact and is so popular among users that an entire language - of sorts - has developed around the technology. The logistics of typing on a small keyboard or phone keypad combined with the typically restrained character limit has resulted in a sort of shorthand English comprised widely of acronyms, abridged spelling, emoticons and other symbols that is widely understood by many users across the globe. The lingo even sports a consistency and popularity wide enough to warrant the existence of several dictionaries and glossaries cataloguing such terms and abbreviations. Many fear that such a truncation of the English language has done it harm, though whether this is true or not is irrelevant to the question of whether text messaging has had an impact on society, and on the contrary actually supports that conclusion.
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