Is Text Messaging Replacing Talking

Text messaging has become a major point of discussion over the years. Although it started out a mostly unused feature of some cell phones, SMS has exploded in popularity over the past decade. For many people who prefer not to use text messaging, it is sometimes baffling as to why someone would want to type out a message on small cell phone keys rather than just calling someone and speaking to them. Others who spend most of their phone type firing off messages to various recipients, text messaging is a way of life. Whether you like texting or not, there has been a lot of concern as to how appropriate text messages are in a business environment.

For business users, texting can most closely be compared to the wild successful Blackberry. A number of years ago this device went from an oft used communications device, a gadget for the most part, to an international phenomenon. Men and women in offices, airports, coffee shops and sidewalks across the country could be seen incessantly tapping away at their little keypads. It appeared the most hooked on the device would not allow a minute to pass before responding an email. Although SMS messages existed on most devices long before the Blackberry became this popular, they did not have the full QWERTY keyboard featured on the blackberry. Within a very short period of time, a full keyboard was standard for PDA-based cell phones.

Although many people at this point, especially high school students, seemed to have mastered the T9 text input ubiquitous to traditional cell phone keypads; SMS was slow to gain popularity outside personal communication. As the population in general got more used to using it, it began to function as a sort of intermediary between email and actually calling someone. SMS allows you to casually send someone a message with a question or simple information without having to engage them in a conversation. This is similar to email which allows more information and is more versatile, yet takes more time and effort to use ? especially when away from a computer.

Text messaging is useful for many in the business world when you need to contact a coworker about a relatively small issue of no great urgency. Asking someone to contact a client when they get a chance or pick up coffee on the way back to the office are perfect examples of why people use SMS. These are situations where calling the person, taking them away from whatever they were doing, is not reasonable given what you wanted to tell them. Text messaging is very useful in this way because it allows the recipient to respond at their leisure rather than being forced to say something back right away, as in a typical verbal conversation.

Another benefit to text messaging is that, similar to email, the people using it have time to formulate a response. This is why text messaging fits in well with verbal communication because it is seen as an intermediary, a temporary substitute to actual talking. Many people who use an answering service have their operators send the messages in the form of a text because it is immediate, it is clearly written out, and gives them the power to stay in touch and get back to the person when they are able. One important thing to remember about text messaging, good or bad is that you can read and type text messages wherever you are. Meetings with staff are frequently full of people feverishly typing out messages to people outside the building, for business as well as pleasure.