X-M-A-S S-M-S

first we had the traditional christmas card, where you took the trouble to go to the shopping centre to buy a card, go to the post office to buy stamps, write the card with pen, seal it in an envelope and post it. then came the internet and people don’t have to worry about running to the shopping centre and post office anymore… they just plonk themselves comfortably on their favourite chair at home and send e-cards. ah so easy… and no worry about being late… ‘coz even if you sent it on christmas eve, it will sure reach the recipient by christmas.

then the handphone craze came… and with it, the popular SMS service… and whaddya know… the SMS had taken over the popularity of e-card. for a mere 15 cents (for maxis) your greetings can be send immediately, and the person will sure to receive it immediately (i.e. if his/her phone is on or he was alert to the received SMS).

well, yesterday, christmas day, i received so many christmas greetings via SMS that i lost count of them. some even came from some persons i don’t know! i mean i can’t recognise their phone numbers. and there were 2 from ICQ SMS service, one of which i don’t know who. one same friend send me greetings 6 times! it’s like SMS to him is free!

why do you think people prefer SMS greetings than e-greetings? i suppose for one thing is more people owned a handphone than people having net access. also SMS is more convenient as the minute you remember “ahhh! i forgot to send greeting to my aunty”, simply take out your handphone now and then and SMS away the greetings, whereas for e-greeting, you have to get to a computer to log in. in term of cost… er… perhaps e-greeting would be cheaper than SMS greeting if once you get online, not only you send cards but do other things online. of course SMS doesn’t consist of text only as now we have EMS and MMS to go with SMS (enhanced messaging service, multimedia messaging service). of course the final reason why people prefer SMS greetings to e-greetings is immediate sent and immediate receipt.

coming back to the XMAS SMS greetings i received yesterday, many of the sms greetings are the usual normal greetings of ‘wishing you a most happy christmas’ but there are a few that were touching like this one:

not all gifts are under the tree, most are in the heart (with stars making up a pic of xmas tree).

but what i like most were the funny ones like:

sending you a musical sms.

“SILENT NIGHT”