A closer look
Neil Papworth, a twenty-two-year-old software programmer, sent the very first Short Message Service text on December 3, 1992, typing the phrase 'Merry Christmas' on a personal computer and sending it to the bulky mobile phone of a Vodafone director. Because mobile phones at the time lacked alphabetical keyboards, the recipient could not even reply to this historical greeting, effectively making the first text message a purely one-sided conversation. Fast forward a few decades, and this groundbreaking communication protocol has evolved into a daily source of crippling anxiety where we stare at pulsating typing bubbles for three minutes only to receive a passive-aggressive 'k' in response. We took a technology meant to effortlessly bridge geographical divides and weaponized it into a tool for leaving our closest friends on 'read' while avoiding actual phone calls like they are a medieval plague
