3-30-09 Freewrite

Text messaging affects the way that people think by forcing them to find new ways to express their messages. This is the case because of two factors. Firstly, sms text messages limit a single message to 160 characters. Secondly, people that use text messages are often in a situation which limits the amount of time that they can spend writing and sending a message. Both of these limitations require the writers of these messages to condense their message, either in the amount of words and characters or the amount of content that they choose to convey in their message. In other words, text messages have the potential to force people to think in terms of their priorities. Would they rather sacrifice part of their message or simply use abbreviations to convey it? Would they rather save time or send a message using proper English? These are simply a few examples of how someone using a text message as a medium for communication could be forced to change how they think.

Text messaging affects communication in a similar fashion, creating shorter messages and forcing people to condense their thoughts and words. Written communication over blogs and through email can be much different from that used in text messages or on twitter for this very reason. In formats that do not have small limits on communications, people are able to say more and are able to do so in a format that allows more options for the writer.