Anne Brannon      2008-10-31

In today's technology-driven society, we're using cell phones to do just about anything, from chatting with Grandma to watching Monday Night Football highlights. When we're constantly on-the-go, it's no wonder forgetting to grab our cell phone is kind of like forgetting to pick up the kids from daycare (yikes!).

In the article Flying Fingers: Text-messaging overtakes monthly phone calls, worldwide marketing information giant, The Nielsen Corporation, revealed that people all over the world are using cell phones more than ever. In the U.S. alone, texting has increased by more than 350% since last year. This means that text messages per month now exceed cell phone calls per month (per individual) in the U.S. with the 13-17 age range dominating the texting market. This explosion of text messages, also referred to as SMS messages, is a global phenomenon. Jim's post Nearly All Young Europeans Use Text Messages shows us that the U.S. has been lagging behind its overseas competitors for awhile now. We haven't quite caught up, but we're making significant progress.

Source: Nielsen

So what exactly does all this mean for the future? Well, for one, it demonstrates the expansive accessibility of mobile technology because it is available at our fingertips anywhere, anytime. Companies of all sorts are beginning to realize the increasing capabilities of cell phones and how to stuff them full with as many uses as possible. The future of cell phones seems to be taking us everywhere from mobile online gaming on your iPhone to emergency disaster relief funding.

The mobile gaming world seems to be headed towards the world of LBMMOG, a lengthy acronym that Mashable.com's Stan Schroeder explains in his post Become a Drug Lord - onYour iPhone. That's right, you will be able to compete for rule of your neighborhood's virtual gang land via real-time GPS tracking on your phone.

Source: Mashable

Other organizations and companies like the Centers for Disease Control and Save the Children are utilizing the mobile media boom for socially conscious marketing campaigns. Social marketing blogger Alexandra Rampy, a.k.a. SocialButterfly, efficiently summarizes how these organizations and many others like them are using mobile technology in a variety of ways. The Cool Factor About Mobile shows how text messaging is being used for more than just brief chit chat with friends. Text messaging is being used for conducting research, fundraising, and promoting products and services.

In light of past campus tragedies, universities across the U.S. are also utilizing the functionality of this mass communication method. Colleges, such as my alma mater and Jim's greatest foe, The University of North Carolina, have implemented emergency text message alerts to more efficiently warn students and faculty of possible campus threats or other emergencies.

Efforts are being made globally to develop text message programs aimed at improving peoples' health, like The University of Auckland Clinical Trials Unit in New Zealand and its partnership with Healthphone Solutions to create a campaign to assist with smoking cessation.

There doesn't seem to be an end in sight to the possibilities of expanding the ever-evolving world of social media. Our thirst for instant-gratification and constant accessibility leaves the door wide open for continued growth of information infiltration from our homes to our pockets.

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