Christmas is fast approaching and what is the most common things people do during this season? They connect with their loved ones and send greetings.
Speaking of communication and Christmas, did you know that 33 years ago, on December 3, the first text message in history was sent? Any guesses what it said?
It was “Merry Christmas!”
In 1992, United Kingdom resident and programmer Neil Papworth sent the first ever text message or Short Messaging Service (SMS) in history. Using his desktop computer, Papworth sent “Merry Christmas” to colleague Richard Jarvis via the Vodafone network.
Papworth was part of the team developing a “Short Message Service Center” for the British telecommunications company Vodafone UK. Hoping to use short messages as a paging service, the programmer installed the system and sent the simple message to Jarvis’s mobile phone. “It didn’t feel momentous at all. For me it was just getting my job done on the day and ensuring that our software that we’d been developing for a good year was working OK,” Papworth expressed.
He had no idea that the first text was going to snowball into a thing called texting today.
Additionally, he also clarified that there was no other meaning behind the text but wishing someone a Merry Christmas and sending it to Vodafone’s director who’s attending a Christmas party at that time.
Throughout the years
Years later, this iconic text message still gets hilarious comments and reactions from netizens.
Some even connect it to Mariah Carey, who has been dubbed as the “Queen of Christmas” because of her holiday music.
“I just know Mariah was involved somehow…”
Even after all these years, the text message remains unforgettable—not just because it’s the first in the history, but especially because it’s tied to the most awaited and beloved season of all: Christmas!
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