Hello, my name is Dave, and I’m a text-a-holic.
Well, okay, it hasn’t quite gotten that bad, but I must admit, since Cat and I both got Treo 650‘s, we’ve been spending a lot of time just keeping in touch vis SMS messages, more colloquially referred to as ‘texting’.
For those still living in the dark ages, ‘texting’ refers to the SMS Messaging function most modern cell phones support. The protocol and capability has been around for ages, and in fact, in Europe, ‘texting’ is far more commonplace. The Wikipedia article, linked above, has a whole fascinating history about popularity and usage.
But for me, it’s just fun.
I admit that I’ve done enormous amounts of my inter-social-network communicatioin via text over the last 15+ years. From IRC, to Email, to IM conversations, and now to SMS, using text to keep in touch is just the norm. I find the moving of text chatting from the desktop onto my phone a normal step in the evolution of digital communications.
What’s the problem, I hear you cry? The problem is it’s not free. Verizon, as far as I can tell, has no system to roll unlimited SMS messages into their service. It’s not tremendously expensive – a 100 message ‘bundle’ can be purchased for about $6 a month, but even with that option, I can see myself going past that limit quite easily. There’s always the shadow of “I’m over my quota! Quiet!” hanging over me.
What’s the point of all this? Mostly that I see Texting as being the next phrase of digital personal communication. It’s already one of the most popularly used communication mediums in Singapore and Europe, and is rapidly picking up pace in the US. If you haven’t tried it, give it a whirl. It’s fun 🙂
(Want to text me? If you know me, you probably have my cell phone number. Just send an SMS message to that 🙂
About Dave Shevett
A wandering geek. Toys, shiny things, pursuits and distractions.
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I like SMSing. It’s a lot of fun and easy to do with the Treo. 🙂
You have a bunch of comments on this over at livejournal from people who evidently forgot that is the one type of text you WONT receive. Woops.
My phone is the most cludgy in the universe for sending/receiving SMS messages. I don’t get why they chose that interface, but I’m definitely upgrading to something easier to use next time.
Another slightly less straightforward option: There are many web interfaces which let you send txt messages without logging into your phone. Since on my plan, my 100 msgs counts for those I receive AND send, and half the time I send msgs, I’m next to a computer anyways, using alternate media can, in fact, save me $ if I need it.