I was watching TV yesterday while switching channels, I saw a feature over at Jessica Soho reports about Text Clans. Its my first time to hear it.

 
Pic from source

I googled about text clan and I found an article about it made by a Text Clan member.

What is a Text Clan? A Text Clan is a group of people who (this is a primary requirement) have cellphones & SIM numbers belonging to the same Network. [Of course! Ü] They recruit members through SMS Resumes sent by a current Text Clan member. There are some clans who have designated officers who interview, or should I say screen, incoming members who expressed interest in joining. Questions like, "Do you have a Friendster? Facebook?", "Are you currently studying? Working?", "Are you open for new & cool people through text?" are what’s commonly asked. Members have the liberty of baptizing themselves with whatever name they wanna have, like your personal YM username. After admission, the incoming member will then receive a copy of the names & contact information of ALL the current members. It could be at least 20 pieces of personal information or as many as 60, or even more.

Their singular purpose? To have a text barkada who share anything & everything about themselves. 24/7!! They can talk about themselves or whatever transpired in their lives & they will have to send that to all the members.

There are some clans who set rules on texting. There’s this one clan who requires members to GM (group message) at least 10x a week or eviction will follow. (What about a modern take on Big Brother, eh?) Some clans have set Rules & Regulations, too.

Source

They’ve turned mobile phones and texting / text messaging into a medium to create a forum. I remember the days when I first joined a Yahoo Group and required approval of the group owner/moderator before I became a member and be able to join the mailing list.

So what prompted the idea of a text clan? Well, there are a lot of unlimited texting services nowadays… plus mobile phones are becoming cheap too – there are even super cheap dual sim phones out there. Then there’s the move to lower down the interconnectivity charges of telcos.

Plus, lack of internet access to join online forums (though there are moves by telcos to provide daily unlimited access to social networking sites).  What else… ummmmm.. people want to have more friends? But I read that these text clans were really brought about by the need of the 3rd sex:

Most Text Clans that I know of are mostly composed of members of the gay community.Members are either of the out, the sad & lonely queers, the looking-for-a-BF, the queens, the realgwapos & hotties, the matatalinos kuno, the my-parents-will-kill-me-if-they-found-out, or the just-for-the-sex-if-i-like-you types.

Aha! so they were the ones who started it! And now, some companies will use these text clans for their products and services! hahahhaha

So, are you part of any text clan? Oh, and does anyone still use text chat? you know, the chat feature in some low-end mobile phones.