The mobile phone, invented in 1979 by Douglas Han, is one of the many ways that have changed the way our society communicates. The mobile phone comes with a list of features and capabilities such as checking emails, internet, taking photos, watching and recording videos, and video calling. Of all the features available on mobile phones, texting has become the most commonly used feature in popular culture, especially among teenagers. Short Message Service (SMS) was originally just an idea for the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). the mid-1980s; it was not until the early 1990s that telephone companies began to visualize the business possibilities (Crystal 3-4). On December 3, 1992, before cell phones were designed to emit individual letters of the alphabet, Neil Papworth, a 22-year-old Finnish engineer, sent the first text message from his computer keyboard to his friend Richard Jarvis , who was attending a Christmas party. celebration in England, the message simply read “Merry Christmas”. Three years later a commercial SMS service was launched in the UK ("Text Messaging"), but the take-up of SMS got off to a slow start and it was not until around two years later that the number of users increased. started to increase. Shortly before the development of MMS, it provided more ways to express yourself using a mobile phone. The multimedia messaging service (or MMS) offered subscribers the ability to send photos, audio files, videos and graphics, as well as longer text messages (Crystal 6). (When rates for sending and receiving regular text messages rose from 10 cents to 20 cents, and multimedia messages were 25 cents, subscribers upgraded their messaging plans to unlimited plans.... .. middle of paper......www.bamaed.ua.edu/edtechcases/Case%20Numbers/text% 20messaging%20and%20grammar_Case%2011.pdf.Silvers, Chelsea “Text messaging is becoming an addiction for some. teens” Artesian Herald. April 18, 2008: 10. Web. /mhs_area_artesian%20herald/Artesian%20Herald%20Volumes/20072008/AH%2010/10.pdf. , nd Web, August 13, 2010. tmcsms.com/learning-linguals-sms.aspx. “SMS and text messaging” Articlebase Np, March 5, 2010. Web, August 2, 2010. http://www.articlesbase. com/cell-phones-articles/texting. -et-text-messaging-1944543.html/Vosloo, Steve. “The Effects of Texting on Literacy: Modern Scourge or Opportunity?.” Shuttleworth Foundation, April 2009. Web. August 6, 2010. http://vosloo.net/wp-content/uploads/pubs/texting_and_literacy_apr09_sv.pdf.