So I was just reading this: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/...hones.aspx (via Technovelgy) -- which got me thinking about the now somewhat dated Mimi Ito-edited book "Personal, Portable, Pedestrian" -- which got me thinking about the Digital Youth project (which gets me thinking about Rushkoff's Digital Nation Frontline documentary ;p) and uh, where was I.

Oh right, so anyway, I read that mobile email is what's popular in Japan rather than SMS? It was written in such a way at Wikipedia as to imply SMS is considered obsolete.

So to contrast this with use elsewhere, is 'texting' referring specifically to SMS? Or is 'texting' just used to refer to using a mobile to transmit text, period? If the former, then what in particular are the differences, technologically speaking?

Television and telephones I know nothing about, so apologies for asking a n00b question.

Ah, interesting. Apparently there's also MMS (multimedia). What's interesting to me is how unpopular voice calling is pretty much everywhere.

I really dislike talking on the phone. I don't even give my cell number out. I have everyone email me. Especially I dislike talking on the phone in Japanese when I can't rely on the other person's body language to make up for what I didn't hear correctly.

Here in the US, 'texting' is sending text messages via telephone. It used to be SMS-only, because that was the only thing on phones. Now that it's IMs and everything else, they aren't excluded... But people still usually mean SMS.

I love the fact that Japan uses e-mail address instead. It's also good for when I'm in America because if any of my friends decide not to use the internet for weeks at a time (which many do), I can just send an e-mail from gmail which is then received straight on their phone. If it's daytime in Japan I can usually expect an answer within minutes.

yeah, it's all email. On Softbank you can only sms between Softbank phones (it's free).
there's no special process for emailing, you just throw in the persons phone address and go about business as you would if you were sending an sms/mms anywhere else.
Most of the people I know use 'texting' and 'emailing' interchangeably when talking about emailing via mobile.
This isn't very earth-shattering stuff.
what is unsual is how crazy the Japanese like to make their email addresses in order to avoid spam (this is a false assumption), and I mean really crazy!

So the US and other countries uses SMS and Japan uses mobile email? But there's no difference?

Yeah, all my US phones have used SMS/MMS/etc, whereas my current au phone does email (or C-Mail, which idk what that is, to other au users for free).

However, if it's worth anything, I still say "text" when I mean "email" if I'm talking to my English speaking friends. It's simply "sending a message of text," and we are unconcerned with the technology.

texting in america is basically email as well, most people just don't know it. your email just happens to be yourphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com (different for each provider of course)

most phones also have the ability to type in an email address where you would normally type the phone number to text someone.

I don't get what the differences are. Just infrastructural/pricing? Not even sure why I care, it just seemed to me that there wasn't much difference, texting-wise, between countries any longer.

Hmm, okay, I've been reading up on the topic, I think I get the differences now.

Found this as well: http://mobithinking.com/blog/why-japan-is-mobile-king -- Apparently Japan is predominantly mobile email, not SMS/MMS, and it's considered 'richer and cheaper' a medium, and from what I can tell, it's more robust.

Versus: "Messaging continues to gain traction through mobile devices, with 53 percent of American mobile subscribers using SMS, 26 percent using MMS, 15 percent using mobile email and 12 percent using instant messaging services." - via

Most people I know here (and to clarify, that means 18-35 year olds in Sydney and Melbourne) use the word "message" in place of text, and pretty well always have. We used to say "sms" when it first came in a decade ago, but it doesn't really roll off the tongue

British friends say "text", and my Japanese friends seem to use "mail" and "message" interchangeably... I can't remember what American friends say (I think we're more conscious of neutralising our language, given that it varies more than UK/Aus).

With all the smart phones kicking around now, I think more people are using email on their phones here, but not one that's designated for their phone, just the normal work/uni/personal email address they'd use on their computer... Not sure if we even have telco-based emails here.

Ryuujin27 Wrote:I love the fact that Japan uses e-mail address instead. It's also good for when I'm in America because if any of my friends decide not to use the internet for weeks at a time (which many do), I can just send an e-mail from gmail which is then received straight on their phone. If it's daytime in Japan I can usually expect an answer within minutes.

Oooh, so that does work? I've often wondered, but never actually tried it. I reckon I'd get faster answers from a lot of my j-friends that way - they use their computers a lot less frequently than friends in English speaking countries.

With mobile phones, unlike SMS, email messages can be much longer and can be sent to another mobile phone or computer. I imagine the greater flexibility of email has been a boon to Japanese youth.

I find it surprising just how absorbed many of them are with their mobiles. The mobiles in Japan can SMS, email, browse internet, play games, serve as a dictionary and so on. Apparently you can even do voice calls! Young people in Japan do seem to spend a lot of their time doing things other than actually speaking on their mobiles.

I often see Japanese teenagers on their mobiles while cycling which seems rather dangerous but then I suppose natural selection will weed out the ones who can't multitask - Darwinism at work!

Joking aside, I find it shocking the number of people I see driving while using their mobiles - in this case it's adults of all ages. I noticed it in the UK too. It's illegal in both countries (and doubtless many other countries) but the police don't seem to make much effort to stamp it out. I was once arrested by a Japanese plain clothes police officer for not carrying my id card. Afterwards I remember thinking I should have asked him why they didn't spend more time catching dangerous drivers instead. Unmarked police cars could drive around catching offenders in their hundreds. Combined with stiff fines it would bring in useful revenue for the government.

auxetoiles Wrote:British friends say "text", and my Japanese friends seem to use "mail" and "message" interchangeably... I can't remember what American friends say (I think we're more conscious of neutralising our language, given that it varies more than UK/Aus).

I, as an American living in the southeast US, hear "text" about 65% of the time, and "message" the other 35% of the time. "Email" is reserved only for when messages are sent to an actual email address (as opposed to a phone number), so only smart phone users use the term "email" much.

I wish SMS would just die out and be replaced by an email system, like the Japanese use. That way we wouldn't be charged by our carrier for "text messages", even though it doesn't cost them a single cent when we send SMS text; even if we may have an unlimited data plan. Plus, the character length limit is annoying, especially considering how some phones support more characters than others; you never know how the receivers' phones will handle the split SMS (when it will split and IF they will split). Also, it'd be great to have multiple email addresses to give to different people, and it would make switching phones and carriers much easier.

Email is just flat-out better in every way.