The History Of Sexting

Sexting began way before the first smartphones made their grand appearance. When you consider the history of sexting, you may mistakenly think it would be short research. It seems as soon as a viable data connection became available, everyone from high school cheerleaders to U.S. senators have jumped on the sexting bandwagon. While all this new technology has made it easier to send those dirty thoughts to each other, it isn’t really happening any more or less than it ever has. Human have been sending dirty messages to each other for as long as there have been humans, beginning with the paintings of ancient men on cave walls.

History Of Sexting – Cave Drawings

Our caveman ancestors drew paintings on the walls of caves, on the sides of mountains and on large boulders implanted in the ground. The pictures depicted various phases of human and animal life. Things like planting crops, hunting, and celebrations were all drawn and have lasted millions of years for our viewing pleasure. Since every facet of life was represented, it should come as no surprise that archeologists have unearthed many cave paintings depicting sex. Not just sex between humans, but animals and gods as well. There you have it. The first sext message emojis.

History Of Sexting – Carrier Pigeons

Homing pigeons are taught to fly long distances between two places and those that carry messages are called carrier pigeons. Beginning in the mid-12th century, kings and parliament would use these pigeons to send messages to one another, often encrypted or in code. Families of means could use them to keep in touch with their relatives afar and young lovers sent each other their undying notes of endearment in flowery, calligraphic script. This installment of sexting history was used for many years and in many different areas such as war birds in WWI and WWII.

History Of Sexting Hall of Famer Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was a famed author, poet and playwright in the 1800’s. Known to be a homosexual, he was caught more than once writing lengthy missives of the pornographic variety to his male lovers. Some have tested time such as The Love That Dare Not Speak its Name. – SEE VIDEO – His works all held romantic and sexual connotations with a healthy dose of humor thrown in for good measure. These early entries in sexting history put suggestive wording right in the public eye.

History Of Sexting – Cameras

While cameras have been around since the 1800’s, it was mid-1940’s when the public at large began to grab their own piece of the pie. Regular normal people suddenly had pocket versions of the expensive equipment previously only professionals acquired. Husbands took boudoir photos of their wives and mistresses. Women took photos of themselves and each other in suggestive poses. Once the instant camera was developed, these photos were circulated with
ease. Hence, the first sexting selfies.

History Of Sexting– The First Electronics

Who hasn’t punched numbers into a calculator and turned it upside-down to spell BOOBS? It is a right of elementary school passage. This could be considered the first sexy messages sent electronically in sexting history. The 1970’s brought us this little gem in sexting history and school kids everywhere are still discovering it. Pagers came around in the 1950’s but were publicly popular beginning in the 80’s. While they could only display numbers, the idea was the same. Other numbers could be sent across to impart a sexual connotation such as 69.

History Of Sexting – SMS Descends Upon Us

On December 3rd of 1992, engineer Neil Papworth sent the first text message, Merry Christmas, to a colleague’s cell phone. Little did he know, people would soon be using that same service to send dirty messages to one another. The GSM Associations had previously defined the short messaging system or SMS, and Papworth was charged with developing and testing the software. Good job, Neil!

The history of sexting could be really short if you are short sighted. In reality, sex messages have been sent since the dawn of humanity. Sex, romance, and the emotions that swirl around those things are integral to the human condition. As long as we survive, we will always use the newest societal advances to express this part of us.