Technological trends come and go at a pretty fast pace, and the mobile phone has evolved from one that predominantly relies on a physical alphanumeric keypad to a touchscreen.

It all happened within the last 10 years or so.

Changes in technology can be disruptive to existing practices and skills.

And the case of the physical keypad's disappearance from the mobile phone saw the loss of the once pervasive skill of texting using the alphanumeric keypad.

This form of texting is characterised by the pressing of a button on the physical keypad's buttons multiple times to access a letter. So, pressing the number "2" button three times brings up the letter "c".

Fastest texters in the world

Not too long ago, Singaporeans were very skilled in this mode of texting. In fact, they were so skilled that Singaporeans held the Guinness World Record for being the fastest texter in the world at various times.

Proper events were also held to determine who could text the fastest too.

In order to set the world record, individuals had to type the following phrase set by Guinness as quickly as they can:

"The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."

Here are the list of timings and Singaporeans who were once the fastest physical keypad texter in the world:

• June 7, 2004: Then 23 years old, Kimberly Yeo who clocked in at 43.24 seconds during an event held at Ngee Ann City Civi Plaza.
• November, 12, 2006: A 16-year-old Ang Chuang Yang set a time of 41.52 seconds to bring the record back to Singapore again, after Yeo's record was broken and held by others.
• February 24, 2008: Republic Polytechnic student Jeramy Sng Gim who was 18 at the time clocked 41.4 seconds and took the record back to Singapore again, after others had beaten Ang's set in 2006.

The last record has since been broken over the years, and the current one stands at 29.43, set by a Kuwaiti named Yousef Ahmed Abdul Saboor.

Unfortunately, as mobile phone technology evolved, this skill, speed, and efficiency in this form of texting became obsolete.

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Fastest texter on touchscreen

Despite the change in technology, however, it seems like we are still among the world's fastest texters.

On September 18, 2011, a Singaporean set an SMS texting world record again. This time, it was a record set on a touchscreen mobile phone that is more familiar to us these days.

Typing out the same phrase set by Guinness World Records previously, a 25-year-old Jeffrey Teo set the world record with a time of 23.40 seconds.

Unfortunately, Teo's record was subsequently broken, and the current record is held by a Brazilian named Marcel Fernandes Filho who set a timing of 17 seconds in November 2014.

But going by past Singaporean feats of setting world records in texting, don't be surprised if a Singaporean breaks this record and sets a new one in time to come.

After all, texting is something we do super often on a daily basis.

And who knows, now that the Nokia 3310 is back again with its actual physical keypad, we might very well see Singaporeans holding the records for texting on both keypads and touchscreens at some point.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Nokia 3310. Image via Youtube[/caption]

The next time you compose a text on your phone, remember that you could be a world beater.

Here's a video of Jeremy Sng setting his texting world record back in 2008:

Top image from Youtube and Pixa Bay.

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