[Air-l] SMS messaging

[Donna Ettrick]

Hi all,
Here in Australia the mobile phone has definitely become
part of the everyday, not just for the young, but across all
age/socio/economic groups. SMS messaging (cheaper than
speaking) has become many peoples' choice of communication
and this is obvious whilst travelling on buses,walking
through shopping centres,shopping in supermarkets and at the
movies one can constantly hear the beep tones of an arriving
message and see many people around pulling their phones from
their bags or pockets to check if it was their phone.
I know people who will only answer to sms messages - not
voice calls.
Last year I was sitting with a class full of students (25
students, 23 had mobiles), and in the first five minutes at
least three quarters of the class had received an sms
message, it was a promo message from Telstra?? offering a
cheap deal on mobile calls, those people with Vodaphone or
Optus didnt receive one and were put out to be left out??
(needless to say, we had to ask them to turn off their
phones)
Another experience was in a social situation with a group of
people (all had mobiles) at a party who were constantly
sending and receiving sms's, to people in the room, having a
private chat with sms, whilst simultaneously having public
chat with others in the same room!!
You can subscribe to free sms services on the internet
(i.e.smspup) but you must agree to receive and view
promotional emails to build up enough points to make sms
calls!!
Dr. Sadie Plant in the UK has done some research on the
development of 'thumbs' in youngsters who have grown up
using their thumbs for gaming and SMSing.
I read somewhere that soon many things like coke machines or
shops will have the technology to automatically detect then
sms your mobile as you are walking by and offer you a 'deal'
of some sort!! The times they are certainly a changing!!
regards,
Donna E