Torontonians share memories from texting revolution on 25th anniversary since 1st message sent
World's 1st SMS text message was sent from a computer to Vodaphone network in 1992
In an age where people are glued to their smartphones and one Ontario MPP is pushing a zombie law to crackdown on pedestrians texting while crossing the street, many Torontonians say it's hard to believe it has been 25 years since the world's first SMS (Short Message Service) text message was sent.
"I remember I used to have to cut short all the words so you get them in one message so you have 160 characters and I used to change 'you' to 'u,'" said Kevin Deegen, adding now he doesn't even worry about how many words he is typing.
Deegen says it is hard to imagine a time when mobile phones didn't exist.
"To try and wake up in the morning and no one had a mobile phone, I'd think the world would just end. No one would know what to do, we're all just stuck to our phones," he said.
British engineer Neil Papworth sent the first SMS (Short Message Service) from a computer to a mobile phone belonging to the then-director of Vodafone, Richard Jarvis, in 1992.
Since then, the first smartphone was created, phones got built-in cameras and were upgraded again in 2003 when Blackberry unveiled the first device to offer email, texting, a web browser and web-based communication system before Apple's iPhone was released five years later.
With the evolution of the mobile phone, Mariane St-Maurice told CBC Toronto that there is no need to talk anymore.
"I text all the time, I rarely make phone calls," she said, noting that it's a noble thing to make a phone call.
"I think it has changed the way we have live conversations because there's always a side conversation happening, right, it's more frequent that you'll be talking to someone and then you have a side conversation because your phone will be buzzing and there will be five other conversations happening at the same time."
She explains that texting enables her to have an instant conversation in any situation and talk to people all over the world.
"I can do it when I'm walking, I can do it when I'm just doing different things and I can have sporadic conversations throughout the day," she said.
"My brother lives in Dubai and I can text him at any point and just have an actual conversation with him ... so it has just brought us that much closer I think."
But Junior Agostini still prefers to call someone rather than text them. He asserts that text messaging has taken away the personality of a face-to-face conversation.
"It has made things easier to communicate with people but it has taken away that personal touch," he said.