Why text?
Text messaging is a quick way to stay in touch with people for personal or business purposes. With text messaging, you can chat with a colleague by typing on the keyboard and reading what they write to you on the screen. Many text messaging products can work with mobile phone text messaging (also known as SMS or Short Messaging Service) so you can chat with people who are not in front of your computer. So why not pick up the phone and talk?
It’s faster than email and phone calls. And you don’t have to pay anything to send text messages. If you need to chat with someone briefly or ask a quick question, it’s much less intrusive than calling someone. As with most developing technologies, there are several types of text messages available, and each is incompatible with the others. But don’t let that stop you from trying it. The main text messaging products are ICQ (www.icq.com), MSN Messenger (www.msn.com), AIM (www.aim.com), and Yahoo Messenger (www.yahoo.com).
by the way (by the way…)
Each one is free and easy to download, install and register. You can locate your “friends” by searching an online directory by screen name, email address, name, or phone number. Once you get used to it, texting can be extremely addictive. As you continue to use text messaging, you’ll learn to abbreviate words and sentences. When you leave an online chat, you can say BRB (I’ll be right back), I’m afk (away from the keyboard), or TTYL (Talk to you later). See the glossary below.
Some text messaging products are starting to offer voice and video chat. The future of digital communication is an integrated product, as voice, video, interactive text messages and email are all effective means of communication. In the future, you’ll be able to switch between text, voice, and video with ease. Until then, we’ll continue to use different methods for different communication needs 🙁
Glossary
🙂 Smiley face. it means someone is happy
😉 Smiley face with wink.
🙁 If someone emails this to you, they’re probably not having a good day
by the way – by the way
FYI – For your information
FWIW – For what it’s worth
IMHO – IMHO (or IMO)
TIA – Thanks in advance
WRT – Regarding
LOL Laughing Out Loud
ROTFL – Rolling on the floor laughing
AFK – Away from the keyboard
TTYL – Talk to you later
CYA – See you later
