Instant messaging available from platforms such as Facebook looks set to replace cell phone text messaging. As the new generation of teenagers buy into smartphones such as iPhones, and BlackBerries because they provide a free BBM instant messenger platforms and there is no limit to the length or number of characters in a message.
Not so long ago teenagers revelled in the ability to ‘text speak’, a garbled mix of phonetic spelling, numbers and invented shorthand which, much to their amusement, was almost completely undecipherable to their parents. Suddenly this trend has turned on its head as more expensive smartphones with predictive text requiring less thought and are just as quick to write, are faster cheaper instant internet based real time text-based conversations. Now to use ‘text speak’ is to admit to not owning a smartphone!
Instant messaging is also predicted to make emails redundant, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was quoted as saying that ‘email is dead’ due to the launch last November 2010 of Facebook’s instant messaging service.
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