Greetings all from very far down under. I am currently on holiday in Australia and am having the time of my life. However, I am not just posting a blog to gloat (well not entirely anyway). I flew to Australia on December 21 so obviously have missed both Christmas and New Year with my friends and loved ones.
This year for the first time I noticed that I both sent and received very few text messages over this very festive period when traditionally SMSs would be queued for hours to cope with the volume. This caused me to ponder is the SMS dead?
In January 2010 we in the UK were sending 11 million text messages an hour however experts are now predicting that the amount of texts sent in the UK will drop by 20 per cent in the next two years.
Renowned Australian blogger Richard Blundell recently published an article entitled 2011: the year we ditched the landline, lost interest in SMS and adopted the smartphone. Stats clearly highlight the fact that SMS is on the decline. But why?
I think the answer becomes more obvious if I look at my own use of mobile. Up until 2011 every Christmas and New Year I would send my close family and friends a text to let them know I was thinking of them, this year however I simply popped something on Facebook wishing everyone well.
Text messaging is, it would seem to me, being replaced by social networking and instant messaging. Texts seem nowadays to come only from spambots, I simply can’t recall the last text message I received. This is backed up by research which recently found that only 51 per cent of Britons in their teens or early 20s say email is their first choice of communication.
Industry experts believe that if this trend is followed into adulthood then text messaging could disappear within a generation.
Should text messaging die out as predicted will any of us really miss it? I know for certain it wouldn’t heavily impact my life especially when travelling. Well, I best get back to my holiday. More random musings from across the world to follow…
