None of the 5 people in my family knows what a text message is

I don't know what a text message is. My wife doesn't know what a text message is? My 21 year old son in the U.S. Navy doesn't know what a text message is. My two grade school sons don't know what a text message is.

Is "text message" just a fancy way of saying "email?"

I honestly have no idea. Sure, I could look up online what a text message is. Though I'd like to hear from someone that has in real life used this service.

I just find it odd that something you hear about in the media 100 times per day for the last 20 years and no-one in my family feels the need to bother finding out what a text message is.

Is this some NWO/TPTB/WOW/Agenda21 initiative to get people to communicate in ways that are more easily captured into databases? Speaking as a computer programmer that's the best answer I've come up with.

I understand Twitter. Twitter is used to associate news stories with key words so that search engines work properly. Text messaging, other than to fill someone's spy databases, I don't understand.