Earlier this week my PR handed me her mobile. One of our Changemakers had texted her and she couldnt understand it. I don't speak younganymore,she said sadly. It was the usual texting code with all its phonetics and abbreviations. As is always the way with these things, about an hour later I discovered a big feature in the New Yorker this week on the history of texting. Historyseemed a ridiculous term to use as texting seems to be such a recent phenomenon to me but apparently now there are a trillion texts pinging round the world every day. When mobiles were in their relative infancy there was a call for protective devices for fear of young people being affected by radiation. Then researchers realised that the young people weren't actually talking on the phones. They were having long, involved and intense text conversations, that took twenty minutes when what was actually being said could have been communicated in a third of that time.
I think texting appeals to young people because its very controllable. Brevity is essential. You can personalise and create a language within the language; another way of being exclusive. And most importantly, you can't be caught on the hop. You answer when you want to. You can't be hurried or cajoled into responding, unlike the harrying call of a ringing phone. It gives you time to be in control of what you say. For a method of communication to become such a killer app so quickly within one generation we should look at its qualities, why it appeals, and how we can harness that appeal. C u l8r.