Breaking News English

One the information age’s biggest successes has celebrated its 20th birthday. The very first, simple, text message was sent December 3rd, 1992. It was sent software engineer Neil Papworth his boss the British mobile phone operator Vodafone. It read simply, “Merry Christmas”. Little did they know that their humble mode communication would take the world storm. SMS (Short Message Service) is today a multi-billion-dollar industry covering every corner the globe. An estimated nine trillion text messages are sent globally each year. Everyone presidents schoolchildren villagers remote parts developing countries relies it to communicate.

SMS is now an integral part daily life most of us. It is the preferred method communication between family members. One study showed that the average American teenager sends to 60 texts a day. It has also spawned countless original and innovative business strategies sending cash overseas voting online polls. However, SMS has also been blamed a decline in language ability and an increase traffic accidents. A new sub-language has spread worldwide as texters find shortcuts to write their messages as quickly as possible using the fewest possible characters. Texting shorthand such as LOL (laugh loud) and OMG (oh my god) has even entered the Oxford English Dictionary.