Comment on Just found an interesting quote from buffy the vampire slayer for our technodystopia.

• Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Probably referring to SMS protocol, 160 7-bit characters.

  In a few years the newer phones automatically started just telling you how many messages long your message was.

  You’d end up shortening things sort of like a telegram.noSpacesSomeTimesToSaveChars etc. but it’s own style. txting it was called, because “txtMe” is a lot shorter than “text me back, please”.

  And they weren’t free so you’d pay by the SMS.

  And when you were txting your crush and heard the Nokia sms… and then another, you’d know there was a longer message. Or having a row with them, in which case it wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

  And sometimes you’d run out of room on your phone (because the memory only supported like 48 messaged or smth), you’d get a message, start reading it, then it’d say “cont”, but your message memory full icon is flashing (same as got a message, but flashing instead of just the letter icon).

  Idk what the argument is but that’s what “original text message” means to me.

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  • HubertManne@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    yup. thats essentially what I meant. email could be a book but sms was limited in size.

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