Abstract
In the last two decades, Short Messaging Service (SMS) has witnessed a remarkable growth and acceptance worldwide. Among other Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) avenues, it is regarded as one of the fastest in increase probably for being so instant and private. It is being estimated recently that short messages are being sent in trillions globally. In the Nigerian framework, the technology has been generating momentum as a phenomenon to be reckoned with socially and politically. The younger generation, above all, use the machinery to bring about social change, fight corruption, and actively monitor and participate in the local politics. This critique reviews related literature on the global nature of SMS and the inference of its use in a local milieu. Findings revealed that SMS has a variety of positive impacts on the lives of ordinary Nigerians. At the same time, results of some studies conducted on students at different levels of education raises some alarm over the growing influence of SMS language shortcuts on students’ formal scripts. Socially, the literature has reiterated the increasing concern over the culture of ‘sexting’ and how capable it is in promoting social vices and incongruity among the Nigerian populace. Keywords: GSM technology, Nigeria, short messaging service, SMS technology, CMC
Highlights
The technology of Short Messaging Service (SMS) began as a tool for system up-keeping and customer notices in 1991 in Finland, and was later-on publicized sometime in the year 1994 (Pitfield, 2004; Taiwo, 2010; Kang &Maity, 2012)
The findings indicated that majority of the respondents 74% expressed how surprising, shocking and disgusting it always sounds whenever they receive vulgar or abusive text messages; while 41% of the respondents voiced out their readiness to take revenge for receiving such messages if at all they can be able to identify its sender
To sum it up, this appraisal has assessed the technology of SMS technology from two angles
Summary
The technology of SMS began as a tool for system up-keeping and customer notices in 1991 in Finland, and was later-on publicized sometime in the year 1994 (Pitfield, 2004; Taiwo, 2010; Kang &Maity, 2012). The shortcuts nature of the SMS language is interpreted as a sort of ―abbreviations, shortened words or codes used to communicate short messages with other cellular phone users‖ Among the three forms of text-messaging stated above, SMS is considered to be the most popular tool of communication with an approximate 2.4 billion users worldwide.
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