by David M. Celdran

IT'S ALMOST impossible to imagine it today, but life did exist before mobile phones and texting. In the analog reality that came before GSM networks and Short Message Service, we communicated by telephone (now a delightfully quaint word), we wrote letters to stay in touch, and looked forward to face-to-face conversations to keep up with each other's lives. Of course, you couldn't warn others in advance that you'd be late while stuck in traffic, or forward jokes and sweet nothings in the middle of a boring meeting, but somehow information flowed—no matter how slowly.

These days only the truly sentimental wait for a letter to arrive in the mail and only Luddites sit through call-waiting and busy telephone signals. The rest of us want—no, demand—instant access no matter where we are, no matter what time it is. Today the only time that matters is now.

It wasn't always a 24/7 world where news, business decisions, gossip, even emotions had a shelf life of minutes. But as communication technology changed, so too did the way we use and value information. Innovations like email, voice mail, and chatting on the Internet continue to alter the way we conduct our business and personal lives, but it was a little-known application introduced by Nokia in their first mobile phones in 1993 that would truly change the way we communicate and live.

Few took text messaging (Short Message Service or SMS to the rest of the world) seriously when it was first introduced by Globe Telecom in the Philippines. Back then, texting was considered a novelty that only techno-geeks and early adopters used as an exclusive channel for communicating with each other. It wasn't hard to see why texting took so long to reach its current popularity: With a keyboard smaller than a matchbox, it took patience and unusual dexterity to punch in your message. And once you got past the complicated on-screen commands, you were faced with the challenge of getting your message across in only 160 characters. It was considered less like email and more like CB Radio — crude but enjoyable and exclusive to the few who bothered to study the features in their mobile-phone manuals. But, without the ability to communicate with the rest of the mobile-phone population, texting was little more than a secret chat room on the Internet headed for the dustbin of techno-gadget history.

But as more subscribers discovered the convenience of the SMS feature on their phones, texting slowly emerged from cult status to way of life. "It was only when Globe Telecom started advertising the feature of its mobile phones and bringing down the entry level to owning a cell phone that text really took off," explains Dadi Santos, Creative Director of the Globe account at Harrison Communications. This in turn sparked a price and advertising war with market leader Smart for domination of the growing text-conscious population.

With cheaper mobile handsets in the market, lower subscription rates, prepaid options, and the ability to download an increasing amount of content like tones and icons, text would soon overtake voice calls as the most sought after application of mobile phones—a phenomenon that has made the Philippines the "text capital" of the world with over 100 million messages transmitted each day. This figure wouldn't have been so impressive if it weren't for the fact that mobile-phone penetration in the country is nowhere near that of countries in Western Europe and North America—a fact that is forcing bewildered mobile-phone manufacturers in Scandinavia to ask how a developing country like the Philippines is turning out to be one of the most networked in the world.

"The answer lies primarily in Filipino culture," says Santos of Harrison. "Although text is popular because it's cheaper than a voice call, our studies show that Filipinos are social creatures and consider texting the next best thing to being there in person." Indeed, a country that puts such a high premium on social relations would seem to be predisposed to anytime, anywhere communication like texting—even more so when the atomizing tendencies of urbanization threaten these previously tight knit community and kinship ties. In a society increasingly disconnected by internal and outward migration, mobile phones and text keep families, neighbors, and friends connected.

RESEARCH gathered from subscribers shows how texting provides the typically hiya Pinoy with a way to communicate very personal feelings in a nonconfrontational way that shields the sender from potential embarrassment. What you can't say face to face — like "sorry," or "I love you," you can always get across through text. Like the award winning television commercial of a teenage punk who texts "Ingat (Take care)" to her square mom, what mobile-phone companies are trying to say is what most of us who use text knew all along: text doesn't only give us an opportunity to say things discreetly, it provides a communication bridge over traditional barriers of sex, status, authority, and in the case of the successful ad campaign—generations.

The implications of text on our personal and social communication patterns are exciting. Men may be from Mars and women from Venus, but texting opens up the intergalactic divide with digital conversations easier expressed on two-inch screens than in person. If not openly, at least privately, text communication is slowly eroding the rigid sexual roles prescribed by Filipino culture. Since no one else will ever know, the privacy of text allows women to make the first move in flirting while giving the emotionally handicapped Filipino male a chance to explore and express suppressed romantic communication skills. "My husband hardly ever talks to me," confesses Maricel, an advertising professional. "But since discovering text, he says things I know he could never say in person."

For the chronically shy and anti-social, there is now the prospect of a text mate. This virtual romance and friendship between strangers is just another expression of the repressed need to communicate feelings otherwise frowned upon in the open. Like Internet chat rooms, the anonymity of text gives texters the private space to fulfill their fantasies. But while the conversations between text mates gravitate invariably toward innermost feelings and desires, not all of it borders on the intimate. Young mobile-phone users choose text mates to kill time by exchanging gossip; professionals like Maricel use it to build a virtual network of women she only knows from text into what she calls a "support group."

Even barriers between generations are crumbling slowly under the pressure of text messaging. With more and more two-income families becoming the norm, there is a growing fear that parents are increasingly losing touch with their children. Text does not replace the dinner-table conversation, but it keeps families connected enough for a few lines each day. And while not every teenager resembles the thoughtful punk in the commercial who texts sweet messages to her mom, family bonds are kept together less by the "I love You" and "Salamat" texts, but more by jokes, wise quotes, emoticons like J, and mindless drivel such as "no gngwa mo ngyn? (what are you doing now?)," the single most texted phrase sent each day according to surveys. As 17-year-old Isabel explains: "Even when we're all home together, my mom never fails to text us—even just a joke or prayer. I guess it's her private way of saying that she's thinking of us."

In the corporate world, where values of authority and position are paramount, texting is also flattening hierarchies of power as employees use their mobile phones to directly access their bosses. Text not only bypasses the overprotective secretary and the bureaucratic layers of assistants, it also allows employees to express complaints, suggestions, and feelings away from the curious eyes and ears of co-employees. And while the privacy of texting has launched many an illicit romance in the workplace, its true value is in the speed by which text communication disseminates information, decisions, and feedback across the organization and with its suppliers and customers.

For the young entrepreneurs of Inc., a company that produces handbags, texting eliminates the need to staff the office nine to five. Nancy Irlanda, one of the incorporators, says, "It's a virtual business where we keep in touch with partners via text and update customers about our latest products also through text." In the New Economy, the speed by which information travels in an organization is a competitive advantage that makes or breaks business. Texting may be a rudimentary alternative to office intranets and sophisticated server-based computing, but its low learning curve and cost-effectiveness give small players enough speed and mobility to rival corporations that invest heavily in wired technologies.