Happy 20th Birthday, dear Text Message – LOL :-)

 

Today marks the 20th birthday of the text message.  On December 3rd, 1992 text engineer Neil Papworth from the UK, sent out the very first text; “Merry Christmas!” to his employee Rich Jarvis who was at a Christmas party across town.

Papworth told reporters. “For me it was just another day’s testing, it didn’t seem to be anything big at the time.

In 1992, you could only receive messages on phones; you couldn’t actually send messages from phones until a year or so later when phones from Nokia and others had the proper capabilities.

Experts estimate people between the ages of 18 and 24 send over 4,000 text messages per month, but some say the growing cell phone use hinders people’s ability to interact with others.


Here are some Fun Facts:

  • 95 – 98% of text messages are read within minutes of receipt
  • 2.12 Trillion Text messages are sent every year!
  • Its origins can be traced back to a Danish pizzeria in 1984. Matti Makkonen, was discussing the idea of sending a message over a cellular system with two colleagues, while sharing a pizza.
  • 1920 – RCA Communications, New York introduced the first “telex” service. Today this service is known as ‘texting‘. The first messages over RCA transatlantic circuits were sent between New York and London. Seven million words or 300,000 radiograms transmitted the first year. RCA today is known as Verizon Wireless.

Most Popular Acronyms of 2012

An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. This is a list of the top 10 in use this year:

 

1. COO – Cool

This is largely a west-coast expression, spawned in California.  “Coo” is a stylish way of saying “Cool” or “I definitely approve of this”.  Coo does not really save you typing time, but it will set you apart as having a different speaking style than people around you.

2. gerd / ermahgerd – god / oh my god!

‘gerd’ is a short version of the stupidity expression ‘ermahgerd!’. As a derogatory way of saying ‘oh my god’, ‘gerd’ is used to say ‘I’m shocked’ and ‘that’s so stupid’ in four quick letters.

3. HMU – Hit Me Up

This acronym is used to say “contact me”, “text me”, “phone me” or otherwise “reach me to follow up on this”.

4. wut – what ALSO: wuteva – whatever

This abbreviation is guaranteed to anger English teachers.  By shortening ‘what’ into three letters, millennial youth save seconds of thumb typing time every day.

5. PROPS – Proper Respect and Acknowledgement

“Props” is a jargon way to say “Proper Recognition” or “Proper Respect Due”. Props is a stylish way to acknowledge someone’s skill or achievement, props has become quite common in modern text and email conversations.

6. SUP – What’s Up

Sup is a common greeting.  You would open a conversation with friends using “sup”, in the exact same way you would ask “how are you doing?”

7. IDK – I Don’t Know

IDK is a pretty straightforward expression:  you use IDK when you cannot offer an answer to someone’s question.

8. KK – OK

This peculiar acronym expression stands for “Ok” or “message acknowledged”. It is the same as nodding in person or saying “gotcha”.  KK is becoming more popular than OK because it is easier to type.

9. IDC – I Don’t Care

You would use IDC when you are trying to make a decision with your messaging friend, and you are open to multiple options.

10. WBU – What About You?

This expression is used in personal conversations where the two parties are well acquainted.  This expression is commonly used to ask for the other person’s opinion, or to check for their comfort level with the situation.

Enjoy the top 10 ALL time chat and text abbreviations:

2moro – Tomorrow
2nite – Tonight
BRB – Be Right Back
BTW – By The Way
B4N – Bye For Now
ROFL – Rolling On The Floor Laughing
BFF – Best Friends Forever
CYA – Cover Your Ass -or- See Ya
DBEYR – Don’t Believe Everything You Read
GR8 – Great

 


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