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There was this hilarious television commercial promoting a company’s text messaging service. (See video below.) If you haven’t seen it, the commercial features a mom speaking with her family about their text messaging habits. The kids and their grandmother start responding in text. Our favorite exchange is at the end …

Mother: “And you, you’re old enough to know better.”
Grandmother: “MYOB, will ya.”
Mother: “Mom, who could you be texting?”
Grandmother: “IDK. My BFF Rose.”

The commercial has been recently updated and this time the family is playing Scrabble. You can guess where that goes. It’s easy to say that there’s no valid reason to text message, so you don’t have to learn how to, but we have three good reasons why you should learn to text message.

Reason #1: Connect with your kids
One of Kristin’s clients told her that last month his 19-year-old daughter spoke on the phone for 13 minutes, but sent over 1,700 text messages. Which speaks to the point—if your child has a cell phone, he or she is most likely using it for text messaging.

IOHO (in our humble opinion), you don’t need to know all the codes—LOL, IDK, MYOB—when texting your kids. But if you need a glossary to interpret your son’s last message, there are several sites available including this one from MyCell.com.

Reason #2: In case of emergency
One discovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was that while phones and cell phone networks were down, text messages from cell phones actually made it through. It was an unexpected lifeline in a time of crisis, and people relied on text messaging to coordinate recovery efforts until emergency phones became available.

Our understanding is that text messages were able to make it through the broken communication system, in part, because text messaging works a little like e-mail. Your phone will store the message within its memory, continually trying to send it until successful. The amount of times it tries, and how long it keeps the message in memory, depends on your phones settings, which is why it’s a good idea to try text messaging before an emergency strikes.

Reason #3: Silent but connected
If students can use text messaging to pass notes in school, or at the dinner table, then it stands to reason that professionals like us can use the same technology when we are unavailable to speak. Through text messaging you can continue to receive messages from clients, colleagues and loved ones, even when it’s not practical to take phone calls. Of course we all know how this can be taken too far, so before anyone complains about texting etiquette, it is not okay to text when you should be paying attention. Or driving.

Before you get started
Ready to text? First, you need to make sure you have a text-enabled phone. It’s a good bet that if your phone is four or five years old, you probably can’t text message. So, it’s time to upgrade. The good news is that it’s hard to find a phone that doesn’t have text messaging capabilities.

You also want to check your plan. It is predicted that “mobile messaging revenue across major markets will grow 15.7 percent in 2008 to $60.2 billion, up from $52 billion in 2007." Who is paying for that growth? You are my friend, in texting fees. It’s easy to avoid overpaying for text messaging with many providers offering unlimited text messaging for you or your entire family.

Finally, send a message! Yes, you will start out typing very slowly – although many phones come with predictive texting (which means the phone tries to figure out what you are typing as you hit each button) which makes life a little easier. And yes, your kids are going to shake their heads in embarrassment.

Kristin Brandt and Erin Kane

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