25 years ago, on 3 December 1992, a British engineer sent a message to a colleague. The contents were unremarkable, a simple "Merry Christmas," but this dispatch of seasonal cheer happened to be the first text message ever sent.
These days, the humble text message is ubiquitous and nothing much to write home about. But, during my generation's early teenage years, the text message was the apex of coolness. And, the sending of one's first ever text was a rite of passage; an entrance examination for a secret society of coolness.
SEE ALSO:The nuns of Snapchat: the sisters offering teens a glimpse of convent lifeI was 12 years old when I sent my first ever text message. My dad was the only member of our household with a mobile phone —a Nokia 6210— and my parents told me I was "far too young" to need a mobile phone. I was greatly put out by this, particularly in view of the fact that literally all my friends had mobiles. Ever resourceful, my 12-year-old self decided to pretend to all my friends that my dad's phone—complete with its disgustingly uncool leather belt clip case—was actually myphone.
"Hi Charlie, how r u? This is my num. Luv Rachel xx," I wrote to Charlotte, my best friend at the time. Even then, I recall being infuriated by the amount of buttons you had to press. But, I felt this first text message had just given me a membership card to the coolest, most exclusive club around.
No more phoning Charlotte and Amy on the landline after school and praying that their mums wouldn't delete the voicemail, I thought to myself at the time. To my chagrin, my little white lie was rumbled when a friend rang the number and my dad answered saying: "Hello Gary Thompson speaking." It was truly mortifying.
Credit: Shutterstock / Ambartsumian ValeryHelena Gowan was 13 when she pinched her mum's Nokia 6210 to send her first text. Her text was to a boy she was going out with at the time. "I had his number saved as 'A' so it was easy to locate," says Gowan. She remembers feeling confused and worried that she hadn't done it right. "I remember having your own phone was super cool back then," she says. Not long after sending her first text, Gowan obtained the decade's must-have accessory: her own mobile.
"I sent myself one a few times just so my phone would go off in the middle of maths and I'd get to look cool and popular."
Sara Tasker was 14 or 15 when she sent her first text message on Christmas Day in 1999. "My first ever text was to the only other boy in my year at school who had a mobile phone," says Tasker. "We both got them for Christmas."
Much like myself, Tasker would use text messages to give herself the appearance of being cool in class. "There used to be a delay in them arriving of up to an hour, so I sent myself one a few times just so my phone would go off in the middle of maths and I'd get to look cool and popular," says Tasker.
For Tasker, though, texting didn't quite bring the kudos or usefulness she had anticipated, but it did mark the beginning of her being an early tech adopter.
Keith White was 17 when he received a mobile phone for Christmas back in 1999. By then, most of his friends had already bought their own phones that summer. His first text message was sent to a girl he was seeing at the time.
"It took me so long, sitting in a pile of wrapping paper on the floor in my living room, as you had to use the numbers with the 3 letter combos," says White. "I couldn't work out how to add a space."
White's first text message read: "How the hell do you work these things? Merry Christmas, Luv KX." He says he used up about £20 in top-up credit during that first day of texting. Despite the fact that his phone only held 10 texts at any time, White kept that very first message for posterity. His phone is still at his parents' house.
Credit: Fairfax Media via Getty ImagesBack in winter 1998, 11-year-old Stephen Rooney sent his first text to his friends. "My parents had bought me a Philips C12 BT Cellnet phone in time for the school ski trip," he says. He and his classmates were travelling in two separate buses, and his first text was sent to a friend in the other bus. "It was exciting, satisfying, and novel as it was the first time communication like this was possible," he says.
For millennials growing up in the advent of mass adoption of mobile phones, sending a text message to friends for the first time was a huge moment. If you were lucky enough to have your own mobile phone—the ultimate status symbol of the time—then you were catapulted to the very top of the high school hierarchy.
Coolness aside though, many of us remember distinctly the momentous event that was our first ever text message. Texting might be second nature to us nowadays, but back then, we couldn't shake the feeling that we'd just entered the 'in crowd'.
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