160 character limit

If you were around the time when mobiles were not smart and just means to call or text, you know that texting came at a cost, phone plans included free message limit, and how to express your thoughts, emotions, feelings, anything under the sky in 160 characters.

160 characters are the limit of the length of the message that Short Message Service (SMS) could support in a single message. It was the reason why mobile lingo came into existence. For some reason when I say 160 character limit, my mind goes “Ti Ti... Ti Ti”. That's the classic Nokia tone for a new incoming message.

Mobile phones were also not a very common thing that every person would have. When I got my first mobile phone, it cost a whopping 1 Rupee to send a text message. But wasn’t a text message the most convenient way to talk to that cute person in your class on whom you had a secret crush! There was a time when I subscribed to a plan that let me send 100 free SMS in a day. I and my friend would share the 100 free SMS budget to chat with our friends. To date, I remember her efficiency to utilize the 160 characters completely. Most of her messages would be 160 characters long, especially the last 10.

Today, the most constraint we have in terms of characters is Twitter, 280 characters. But there is no charge on multiple tweets or no limit on maximum tweets. I sometimes wish Whatsapp had a character limit so family groups wouldn’t be swamped with “Read More” messages! Honestly, how many have you read?

The costly SMS messages, made the person think over the message content multiple times and then carefully type it. A thought was sparred for the message and how the person reading it might perceive it.

The other day I was reading an article and it spoke about emails and letters. The author drew parallels on how the two processes are similar and yet so distant. One person initiates the discussion and the other responds and the chain continues. Whereas in letters, the person sending the letter waits in anticipation but knows that when the reply comes, it is going to be a well-thought response. There have been times at work when I have been told to respond within a minute to any emails. Why is there so less stress on a well-thought response and so much on a prompt response? Well, no one charges for emails, so we can do a prompt response first and then a well-thought response. You know what, it charges to send emails, not to us but to nature. Read more here.

Sure, you can exercise your freedom of speech, but spare a thought as you would for that 160 characters long SMS!