
Mobile phone addiction began 25 years ago
The first text message that was sent actually used full words rather than text-speak.
The first SMS was sent 25 years ago on the 3rd December 1992. A quarter of a century ago a British test engineer, Neil Papworth, typed the first text message which said, “Merry Christmas”. It launched into a success with smartphones that some reports suggest might even have become an addiction.
The first SMS message was sent over the Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom using a personal computer. It originated from radio telegraphy in radio memo pagers. The initial growth was slow, with GSM customers in 1995 sending on average 0.4 messages per month. But by 2006, over 205 million messages were sent in the UK alone.
Did Neil Papworth have any idea at the time that analysts expect 7.89 trillion