SMS (Small Messaging Service)

(Sahar Riaz, Rawalpindi)

Information technology is changing its mode of communication in the era of globalization as communication is changing the norms of socialization. Information is disseminated using variety of instruments; computer networking, internet, mobile communication, and social networking sites. Among all theses, mobile communication is wide spread and is utilized by majority of people to communicate and share ideas or information. The most basic function of mobile phones is to connect people through phone calls. With growing advancements modern mobile phones support multiple services including SMS (Small Messaging Service), MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), Internet, Short ranged wireless communication (Bluetooth and Infrared) and other Business applications. A mobile phone is regarded as a facilitation tool that institute “constant touch” to connect socially. The touch leads to the expression of speech through the use of text messaging labelled as “SMS”. This type of communication is easy to use and the generation of 21st century prefers using it for instant communication.

The frequent use of SMS communication is evident in Pakistan as it is prevalent in the world. Pakistani youth is relying on the use of the digital tool “mobile” to communicate with their friends, family members and distant relatives. The digital tool is changing the mode of socialization as sending an SMS is considered more easily as compared to visiting anyone. In Pakistan first mobile service provider came in mid-1990’s. Initially, use of mobile phones was limited and only rich or elite class could afford mobile phones. It was considered as a status symbol. With the passage of time, cellular networks increased and began introducing service packages in order to attract customers. Gradually, besides providing call services, SMS, MMS, GPRS, Bluetooth, Radio, Internet and Television services were introduced. However, in Pakistan SMS communication remained one of the major attractive features due to affordability and quickness.

Youth is the key target audience due to their preference of using SMS instead of calls to communicate with distant people. Beside this, daily routine of Pakistani youth is dominated by the use of SMS for sending jokes, communicating ideas, prviding information, socializing and greetings.

Teenagers are the most skillful mobile users. They use text messaging as a form of day to day interaction. They are now learned users as they know how to create connections within and outside the family through mobile usage. They use multiple features of the mobile technology to easily convey their ideas and opinions.

Texting is referred as ”Use of abbreviations and other techniques to craft SMS and instant messages”. It is to note that texting neither follow standard rules of English and grammar, nor the usual spellings. This craft of language is the new emergent language. Now a days youth is adopting new and innovative ways of interaction among each other through the use of latest technology. For them mobile telephony has changed their lifestyles and attitudes. Youngsters use mobile technology for voice, they send SMS messages, use mobile calendar for setting particular dates, play games and receive news alerts frequently.

The widespread diffusion and the frequent use of mobiles has produced a new ‘personal communication society’. This includes prevalent social change, innovations in technology, new means of social networking, emergence of virtual public spaces and youth mobile culture.

The generation of this era heavily depends on mobile text-messaging to keep themselves in-touched. It has become an indispensable communication tool in their daily lives. This has resulted in a new communication culture that is the play of buttons. This communication culture contains "consumer related communication" and "brief messaging (just to kill time)". SMS allows to send and receive textual messages directly on to the mobile phone. It utilizes handset keypad and certain menus to write, edit and send or receive. This is the success of cellular industry as youth has shown highest reception of this technology for day to day interactions.

Mobile calling and texting behaviors among Pakistani youth. The study includes the data from seventy-seven college students of 17 to 21 years of age. It is found that the majority of students are heavy users of mobile phones. They are fond of texting or messaging but they use voice calls less in quantity. The use of mobile for communication is found within their particular age group. The usage is motivated as low-priced prepaid packages are offered by telecommunication services in Pakistan.

Instead of youth’s attraction in using messaging for daily interaction, messaging is also a major attraction to the businesses. The reason behind this is that it is cheaper than mail marketing and the possibility of reading text messages is higher in youth. The use of mobile phone and its feature of messaging is the latest trend among the youth. The frequent use of mobile phones has been woven in the lives of young generation that provides the sense of independence from family and power relations. In Europe digital media can help in increasing the participation of citizens in democratic processes of the council. It focuses on two issues; to find level of citizen’s participation in SMS project and to find the impact of the project on council’s democratic processes. For this “Youth Services Department of the council” started ‘Youth Participation Project’. It prepared SMS system for one year trial. Chosen population is surveyed through messages using council’s SMS system to get their opinions regarding the project. The results indicate that the system is appropriate in getting the responses of the audiences but it does not provide feedback to them to let hem know that their ideas have been received. This positive result is that people participated in the project but they were unawared of the details of the project. Hence, regardless of the project it is to say that mobile is the most preferred means of communication and if the authority decides to communicate with this technology the youth gives a positive and desired response.
Whereas the use of mobile for specific purposes by Chinese teenagers has been studied in china. It includes the areas of chain-messages, greeting messages, use of emoticons and parental control. For studying these areas field survey is conducted with the sample of one hundred Chinese teenagers. This adoption is because of seven reasons; low cost, flexibility, privacy, avoiding embarrassment, entertainment, fad and escape. The mobile phones can be utilized as a civil resistance to certain issues. Through the use of mobile technology public can fire their opinion collectively. It is now harder to trace and censor information originating from cross-border sources with high velocity.

SMS communication is an effective medium for advertising in Bangladesh. A study in Bangladesh finds qualitative as well as the quantitative data from field interviews of 160 customers belonging to different business people from all businesses show positive attitude in adopting SMS advertising through mobile phones. There is a huge prospect of responding to the SMS advertising in Bangladesh because people are compelled to use mobile phones daily. The new media form of mobile communication is used by young Chinese women in keeping social relations. Moreover, this communication has enabled the modern Chinese women, especially, to take initiative in self expression and building of new social relations particularly in sustaining social interaction with males. Along with females, males are also becoming SMS users for establishing new interactions. Whereas text messaging is more frequent used by women as they are less comfortable in speaking in front of public. With SMS, fingers do the work of talk rather than the verbal speech.

The advancement in technology has created new forms of advertising. This helps in reaching consumers at large. The increase in the need for advertising has resulted in the wide use of ”short message service (SMS)” advertising. The study deals with the perceptions of young consumers towards this SMS advertising. For this quota sampling is done within a large university and questionnaires are filled by the sample of 198. The result indicates the perception of youth value SMS advertisements that are precise, short and to the point but relevant to their interests. The attitude of youth in SMS marketing is found to be positive as they give frequent responses because this technological use is a credible source of information for them.

Text messaging, called Short Messaging Service (SMS), Instant Messaging (IM), or micro blogging can be used in imparting education. This can create the feeling of being connected. IM is a computer-based chat that provides on-line text-based conversations between individuals on the internet. SMS is another communication tool that delivers instant messages up to 160 characters. Micro blogging is a new web technology. It is a blend of blogging, texting and social networking. These new technologies are being used for education and information as the youth develops conversation and help each other in understanding certain issues of their interest.

It is concluded from multiple studies analyzing SMS communication that the advancement in technology people are fond of using SMS as a mode of frequent interaction. The feature of exchanging short service messages are used for imparting education, frequent communication and affordable recreation. It is helpful in providing information related to different issues including agriculture, advertising and democracy as it is a credible source.

Sahar Riaz
About the Author: Sahar Riaz Read More Articles by Sahar Riaz: 32 Articles with 60165 views Being a professional designer and animator, I have completed my studies in designing i-e graphic designing, web designing and animation. Specializatio.. View More