22 billion texts are sent worldwide every day, and more than 80 per cent of Australian adults say they have sent a text in the last six months.
Some fear texting hampers the language proficiency of young people.
But German-born socio-linguist Dr Ingrid Piller, from Macquarie University in Sydney, says there's no need for concern.
"With texting, actually, it has given us a new mode of expression and so people are getting more creative and every generation has their own challenges and that's what young people do," she says.
"They have a new genre and they do new things with it."
Who sent the first text?
The first person ever to send a text, in December 1992, was Neil Papworth. He used a personal computer to send a text to Richard Jarvis. The message of that momentous first message was "Merry Christmas."
So what does Mr Papworth make of all the advancements since then? He says that despite new social media applications such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, the idea behind the nature of texting has remained the same.
"I think people love the simplicity of texting" Mr Papworth says.
