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'Texting' Takes Over The Philippines
Logic Bomb writes: "The New York Times has an article [Free reg. req.] about how "texting" -- the sending of short text messages via cell phone -- is taking over life in the Phillipines. I mean really taking over. People are texting while they drive, at funerals, instead of conversing over dinner, during tests in school, even to avoid the potential embarassment of asking someone for a date in person. This is an interesting contrast to, say, Finland (home of cellular giants like Nokia), where cell phones are everywhere but people actually use them to talk. The article gives some economic reasons for this difference, and mentions that this may be a good way to start bringing some of the poorer but developed countries into the digital age. Any thoughts from the Slashdot community? Is this a good thing, or is it an unfortunate imposition of the depersonalizing aspects of technology onto an unsuspecting culture?"
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
Texting is quite popular even here in Finland, but it's true what Timothy says, talking is even more popular. My personal cell phone bill consists of about 40% SMS, 40% talking and 20% monthly fees. I don't talk long (one reason is that my cell phone is rather old and has quite a poor battery) but I try to call rather than to text someone if I have something to say. That way I get an instant reply (not everybody hears the SMS beep) and can chat with him/her in real time. Plus, I find it nicer to talk than to punch buttons.
The reason why my SMS fees still comprise 40% of my phone bill is that while I enjoy talking, I don't like to leave a message on an answering machine. I rather say it briefly in a text message. That way the recipient can read it when he/she wants and as many times he/she wants. Plus, many times when they have their answering machine on, they still can recieve SMS messages (in a meeting for instance) and perhaps even reply to them.
And then there are these services. Sonera Zed for instance. Get stock quotes, weather information, cinema info, find the gas station with the lowest fees in town to name but a few. All these cost about twice or thrice the standard SMS fee (which is ~15-20 cents) and thus can easily comprise a large-ish portion of your bill.
Many of the phones sold today have predictive text input and that speeds up typing considerably. On the other hand, it's a pain when your buddy has it and you don't: Once a friend of mine sent me a message to which I was replying when he sent another. I had to abort to see what he wrote and then started typing a reply for both. Third message arrived from the same person. This would have gone forever but he got tired and stopped :)
Then there's this thing about privacy. You can't call your girlfriend from work but who would stop you from texting her. We Finns are quite shy in general and therefore find it easier to text rather than to talk aloud when there are others around. And it's more polite as the Japanese guy earlier pointed out.
yeah, yeah - and then at the other end... an interface to change the text back into voice again! Perhaps you could even sample the person's voice with your phone so that it could even sound like them!
Truly, who could have forseen such innovative uses for the humble phone?
The cost of communicatig over SMS-messages is not that simple - at current rates here (I live in Finland, BTW) sending an SMS-messages costs about as much as talking for a minute. (0,99 FIM, about $0,17) and even a "simple conversation" requires 2 messages - that's two minutes of talking compared to 320 character of text (one message is 160 characters). On the other hand, SMS-message costs always the same, and voice rates depend very much on who you call and when. (Mobile network vs. fixed network, mobile operator, time of day etc...)
But as previous poster mentioned, this is very common among teens. My brother, who is 17 years uses more money for SMS-messages than he uses for voice-calls and he is quite conservative mobile-phone user.
The other very significant use of SMS-messages are different services - you can get new ringing tones, pictures to your phone (operator and other logos), different news-services, stock-quotes, the showing times of movies in your city, horoscopes, jokes - just about anything you can think of. (The newest "boom" are different dating-services where you can search for a date using your phone) I use the weather-service constantly - I skydive and wind it is important to know what the weather is at the airport (mainly how fast the wind blows) - I don't want to drive 40 minutes just to find out that it is impossible to jump. My mobile phone gives an answer in 10 seconds. These services are still awfully expensive - from FIM 1,99 to FIM 9,90 ($ 0,30 to about $2) - I hope that the upcoming GRPS-networks (promised to arrive early next year) will fix this when the phone is always connected to network and you pay only for transfered data - it makes "push" -services much more usable and hopefully will increase the use of services and bring prices down.
Everybody.
Many people use them to send email. It's cheaper (connect time is very expensive here), it's asynchronous, and it's more polite, if you happen to be on a crowded train or similar. This despite the fact that typing in Japanese on a cell phone keyboard is a huge pain. Characters are typed using a phonetic alphabet that has over 50 glyphs organized by initial consonant -- all the "k" syllables are on one key, which you press up to 5 times to get the one you want -- and since most Japanese kanji characters need two or three phonetics, plus a menu-based selection in case of homophones (of which there are huge numbers) it can take more than ten keystrokes to enter a single kanji (and many Japanese "words" are combinations of two kanji). All of this done with the thumb of the hand holding the phone.
But people still do it. Abbreviations are very popular in Japan, and you can forego the kanji and just leave it as phonetics if it's clear enough from context.
One nice thing about this is that you don't have to hold the little microwave transmitter next to your head. Similarly for the new cell phones that have video cameras in them -- you hold them in front of you (but you don't type text in that case, obviously).
Meanwhile the cell phone manufacturers are packing more functionality into the phones. My wife's cell phone has a tamagotchi living in it. Plus all the functions of an address book and memo organizer. All on a 3cm screen. But small is beautiful in Japan, and you can pack a lot of info into a small space (16x16 pixels per kanji) even if it takes a long time to type it.
Since I am living in Finland I think I can safely comment on this.
Sending SMS messages is incredibly popular in Finland and there are an amazing amount of services available via SMS.
Some numbers:
Over 65% of Finns own a cell phone (population is about 5.5 million)
Last year there were 650 million SMS messages sent
And the speed some of them can type on those phones is pretty amazing too :-)
Also, if I recall correctly, the number of cellphones exceeded the number of fixed lines in Finland last year
Jody
The Phillipines version of the "Wassup!?" Budweiser commercials:
...across town another guys cell phone rings. He picks it up to the (text) message "WASSUP!?".
Man stands still for 45 seconds hitting buttons on his cell phone...
-Antipop
It took us 3 years and a big bribe--affectionately referred to as "grease money"--to just get a second phone line installed in our house. And that's not bad from PilTel, whose customer service antics include severing our telephone wires while performing "routine maintenance checks."
There are still many areas where the only way to get messages in and out is via Ham radio operators to a telegraph office. I'm not kidding! So in an area that's beset by typhoons, earthquakes, seasonal floodings and volcanoes, building and maintaining land lines is extremely difficult compared to simply putting up a few wireless towers.
(BTW, the 1 peso fee for texting is about $0.02 at today's exchange rate.)
--
Have fun: Join D.N.A. (National Dyslexics Association)
I go back to the Philippines to visit relatives about once a year; my last visit there spanned a week in late March/early April. I was there for the "Pope is dead" rumour, which thanks to a combination of "texting", word-of-mouth and the strong Catholicism (it was a Spanish colony for 300 years), spread like wildfire. I got to see and experience texting first-hand.
One reason for the high adoption of cell phones is that the wait for a land line is incredibly long. My cousins, who live in a suburb of Manila, were on the installation waiting list for over a year. For many people, the only way to get a phone within a reasonable period of time is to go mobile.
A mobile phone is a very handy thing in the Philippines, especially in extremely crowded cities like Manila, with a population of about 10 million (and a possible 2 or 3 million transients who get missed in the surveys). Traffic is so bad that they had to establish a system in which certain roads are off-limits to cars with odd- or even-numbered license plates at peak times, depending on the day. Running late is a common occurrence, and having a cell phone means that you can reach anyone who's waiting for you or find out how late the person you're waiting for will be.
Texting is much cheaper than using up your air time. There are many popular cell phone plans that offer 100 or 250 free text messages per month. Among the teen- and 20-something crowd, texting is most often used to let your friends know where you are or where to meet up. It proved to be extremely handy in "The Fort" -- a very popular and crowded mall of bars, clubs and restaurants located in an area similar to San Francisco's Presidio (along with the new club, Orange, it's a fun place to hang out...tell 'em I sent you).
There are services already available in the Philippines that we here in North America have yet to see. Some banks in the Philippines offer ATM-like functions over your cell phone -- you can check your bank account or be notified of things like payments due or maturing funds.
(In case you were wondering, the two official languages of the country are Filipino and English. Most of the people in Manila speak workable or better English, and most of the signage in Manila is in English.)
Every shopping center and more than a few street market stalls carry cell phones or cell phone accessories. I'm still kicking myself for not getting the Neon Genesis Evangelion face plate for my Nokia. My cousin has one of the phones with a flash RAM updateable ringer. His current phone ring is Aqua's "Barbie Girl", which somehow appals and amuses me at the same time.
As for the cultural aspects -- there's "hiya" (pronounced "hee-YA"), which can be translated as "shyness", "shame" or perhaps "reserve". It's a traditional Filipino trait not to be too outspoken, but you have to remember that a fair bit of North American culture has seeped in, thanks to a large expatriate community, radio and television. Traditionally, you were introduced to members of the opposite sex at well-chaperoned parties held at someones' parents house (many people still don't leave home until they're married there), but these days meeting people while out is increasingly becoming the norm. The teens and twenty-somethings are caught in the pull between the traditional and newer ways to socialize -- it seems that texting seems to be the best compromise. Perhaps texting might be the future of geek pick-ups at Linux conventions!
Just another "The Thrilla from Manila",
Master of Kode Fu
Not if you've got a newer phone.
Lots of new phones come with predictive text input which lets you press each key just once, and it predicts what word you're typing based on a built in dictionary. Much quicker.
Text-messaging is great: the US is really missing out. I find it indispensible for several reasons. Firstly its great if you're in a noisy bar or club, where its impossible to hear a phone. Secondly its cheap: i pay £.06p ($.09) per message, as opposed to £.30p/min to call another network mobile.
Lastly, and most importantly, texting is great for flirting. Little mesages that you'd never dream of saying by voice, are somehow easier to say by text!