The Newer More Intellectual No Contract Cell Phones
Since the recent huge increase in technology especially for no contract cell phones throughout the past decade or so, more and more devices have sunk their teeth into cultural lexicon and designed the way communication in modern society has functioned. The iPod has made CDs virtually outdated. The Kindle has taken literature out of the paperbacks and onto the digital screen. GPS has substituted the atlas. But nothing has an impact quite like the advent of text messaging for mobile phones and also the no contract cell phones.
Practically every cell phone on the market is qualified for text messaging, which as of 2007 is the most broadly used mobile data service in the world with over 2.4 billion consumers. 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 typical so quickly. All service providers offer some form of text messaging and the feature is even out there on no contract cell phones.
Many service providers offer you a flat rate for texts, while others offer unlimited texting, while no contract cell phones often charge on a per use schedule. 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 freedom and typically needn’t fear receiving a text during situations where it may be improper to speak verbally.
So prevalent is text messaging, that an entire system of manners has formulated around the technology that is very diverse and stands wide apart from that expected during a regular phone call. Replies need not be quick unless otherwise noted, and there is no harm in texting someone when they are incapable to speak with the intent of leaving the message for them to read later – a practice much more practical and concise than leaving a voice message. Text messages are also typically saved and much simpler to reopen for quick reference than a voice message, so that texts with important info 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 strategies of typing on a small keyboard or phone keypad blended 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 recognized by many users across the globe. The lingo even sports a consistency and reputation wide enough to warrant the presence 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 unimportant to the question of whether text messaging has had an impact on society, and on the contrary in fact supports that conclusion.