Think of SMS as short text postcards send from phone to phone. Like email, you send a text message to another mobile user's number. Thanks to the European adoption of the Global Standard for Mobiles (GSM), SMS works across most mobile networks, so it has taken off like a rocket in the last few years. In the US, our older diverse networks haven't been able to exchange data services, but as networks upgrade to GSM or add services like WAP, you can expect to see SMS spread in the US as well. There are already GSM networks in the US like Omnipoint on the East Coast and Bell South.

In Europe, over five billion short messages were sent in just one month of 2000. That’s right: Five BILLION. According to mobile companies, most of those were person-to-person. There's a whole lotta chattin’ going on and if AOL's similar Instant Message application is anything to go by, it's safe to assume that romance is probably one of the most common uses for SMS. Not surprisingly, AOL is currently porting its messenger application to other portable devices, including phones. Soon the online lonely hearts club will go on walkabout.

But would-be mobile Romeos need to remember that you have to be brief when SMS eventually catches on in the States. You have 160 characters, including spaces, for each message. They say that brevity is the soul of wit. Brevity is also a major motivation when you’re trying to pitch a little woo on a telephone keypad using only your thumb.

Most of William Shakespeare's sonnets are about 600 characters so forget the Bard. ee cummings poems are shorter but when you count the spaces, you're still too long at 250 characters. If you need a little inspiration for keeping it short, try the courtier poets of the 10th century Japanese court. These women wrote the book on concise. (I recommend Jane Hirshfield's translations in The Ink Dark Moon.

Or for the less highbrow Romeo, try the Bloodhound Gang: "You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals, so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel!" That's only 95 characters.

Sometimes life is too short to be subtle.

Mobile Shorthand

When you have only 160 characters to express yourself, you have to be creative (and a little fast and loose) with the language. Like a lot of new comm tech, mobile users have borrowed a lot from online shorthand and even spawned some of their own slang that looks a little like something from the songbook of the Artist Once Again Known As Prince: