Church wants teens to stop texting!

Traditionally food indulgences and vices were given up for the 40-day period of Lent leading up to the Easter celebration. This Christian ritual is meant to be a period of practicing self-discipline and meditating on the state of one’s soul. Originally a time of strict fasting it has become more symbolic today than anything else with practicing Christians giving up one or two of their favourite decadent things for the period. The list could include anything from rich foods, chocolate, alcohol, smoking to watching movies – today the Lent list includes texting!

The call from the Archbishop of the Italian city of Modena, Monsignor Benito Cochi for young Catholics to give up texting for this period has been backed by many Christian clerics. Monsignor Cochi is quoted as saying that this would help them ‘cleanse themselves of the virtual world and get back in touch with themselves.’ He did go a step further and ask them to add social networking and playing computer games to the list.

What is interesting about this request from the Archbishop is that it shows so clearly what an impact the mobile phone and SMS technology has had on global culture. Texting has radically changed the way that people communicate with each other. Since the first SMS text message was sent in 1993 in the United Kingdom with the text, ‘Merry Christmas’, SMS has become the most widely used data application on the planet.

Over 3 billion people send text messages every year and as mobile phone penetration increases into rural areas and emerging economies that number will increase. Tomi Ahonen puts it into perspective for you: this means that twice the number of people who use the internet send text messages, 2.5 times as many people send messages via SMS than email. Twice as many people send SMS text messages as watch TV. SMS messages are read and written by six times as many people as those who buy a paper every day. In fact 680 million people pay to receive news via their mobile phone, 42% more than people who pay to buy a newspaper! The figures are astounding and the impact on business has been dramatic.

SMS is becoming a payment and banking system, a voting medium, an emergency notification system, a barrier to fraud and identity theft, a medical diagnostic tool and an affordable and effective way to market and sell products and services. Industry applications range from financial services offering mobile banking to governments rolling out emergency notification SMS systems and everything in between.

Because SMS messages are delivered to the mobile phone, the most personal communication device that is nearly always on; messages are responded to quickly unlike more traditional forms of communication. The mobile industry, one of the most innovative and fast-moving in the world, has quickly expanded the role of the text message from personal communication use to business applications with bulk SMS capability, ‘email-to-SMS’ options, triggered and personalised bulk text messages, premium rated SMS charges and two-way SMS communication.

Whether you are an individual or business, SMS is not only here to stay it is defining the way that we communicate on a global level. Get educated about SMS text messaging today!

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