Virtually non-existent text messaging culture

Our sister site Ubergizmo has a pretty interesting take on why text messaging has not really taken off in the land of the free and home of the brave. According to Paul Kedrosky’s article in Business 2.0, he mentioned that “Texting is insanely popular overseas, but practically nonexistent in the United States – for now. That just means we’ll have to import the best tech from abroad.”

It would be pretty harsh to take a one-dimensional view on that, as there are many reasons to why text messages are not picking up steam in the U.S., and they have nothing to do with technology or money. In a nutshell, it boils down to something money cannot buy – lifestyle and culture.

Europeans take full advantage of SMS as it is much cheaper when compared against voice minutes. For example, you will inevitably spend at least a quarter of an hour when you call up a friend in France, whereby getting your message across in a simple text message will suffice. Some of the older generation loathe SMS as it lacks the warmth and personality of a voice conversation, whereas the younger generation embraced it like a duck to water. Of course, budget is one of the main factors in the decision making process.

The Japanese, on the other hand, are a technologically advanced society on the whole. Where else in the world will you see people of all ages texting furiously on their cellphones while taking a ride in the subway? Japanese culture deems talking on the phone in a public transport as rude, so texting is a much more polite manner of asking your other half what’s cooking for dinner. Long commuting hours also contribute to the proliferation of SMSes as you can’t just stare at your opposite number during the entire 2 hour journey.

Here in America, however, most people spend their time hacking away on a keyboard at an Instant Messaging program to keep in touch. Either that, or they’re on the road and cannot afford to lend their fingers to a less important task like sending a text message. Time is given a very high premium here, and there are better and more important things to do than allocating a portion for SMS.

“Value” seems to be the key here. Text messages in the U.S. do not have the same intrinsic value as found in other countries. Most of us will not make use of something which we do not feel a need for. Importing technology is definitely out of the question, since all phones these days come with SMS capabilities. As the age old adage goes, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Text messaging have an extremely high profit margin and is the golden goose of many wireless carriers worldwide.

Should our pride get in the way just because SMS usage in this country is laughable when compared against other countries? The answer is an obvious NO. To put things in perspective, we don’t use as much “Bicycle Technology” as the people in China, but that doesn’t mean we’re worse off in our Cadillacs and Hummers. Let us ditch this psychological crutch and remain confident in ourselves, using only technologies that we need without worrying about keeping up with the Joneses.