Instant Messaging: Great communication tool, or senseless waster of time? - Page 2

Sundae · 10-06-2005, 11:17 AM

My only problem with IM is that it does encourage some people to write drivel.

For example "Phew its really hot here! Hehe!"
or
"Wow I'm so bored r u busy"

Great.

Only a few friends of mine do this to me - intelligent people face to face & via other mediums. But somehow they seem drawn to MSN Messenger when they have nothing to say, rather than when they do. Which doesn't seem to be the case with telephone calls, text or emails.

eiffelenator · 10-13-2005, 07:42 PM

The fact that it is pretty much instant email makes it nice, but conversation does drag sometimes. yegah...

NovemberRain · 10-24-2005, 03:47 PM

It's a mixed bag. When I'm working with people across country who aren't very talkative like myself, it's great. In contrast, a client of mine had a new salesperson who wanted to collaborate in realtime using IMs instead of just e-mailing me the instructions. The client balked at paying my bill when he saw how many hours were tied up in that little project. If it's anything that involves money, I'd just as soon keep it in e-mail so I'll have a paper trail.

Sun_Sparkz · 10-24-2005, 07:53 PM

I use it constantly, i am on all day at work - i have a few ppl on my contacts (98% of whom i know) and i dontthink i could get through the day without that flashing orange rectangle letting me know that someone want to chat with me

i dont mind who puts me on their contact list.. im usually pretty chatty.

i love it for filling in time, gettin the goss.. looking at my O/Seas friends msn spaces and updating mine, i just like it. But i am 21.. so you could put it down to the SMS generation i guess..? also saves me money by talking to my brther in london.. other wise we would never communicate

vsp · 10-26-2005, 11:30 AM

I never use AIM. At work, we have a similar system that comes in handy for quick communication, but I use it sparingly.

When I was in college long ago, we used the Unix-based Zephyr message system, which had similar functionality. That we did use constantly, for both productive and frivolous effect.

Interestingly, zephyr devolved into a sort of meta-message system. Someone figured out that the act of starting a message on an instance caused a "ping" to be sent out with the subject line of the message. Since most of us set it up to subscribe to all instances, we started sending pings out instead of full messages and communicating that way.

Subscribing to all instances had its drawbacks, such as when one of our resident wits would convert some twisted porno .gif to text, send it on an instance in "nil2" font (which was sufficiently tiny to render the image easily discernable), and laugh as it popped up on dozens of screens in the middle of class.

Sun_Sparkz · 02-07-2006, 11:03 PM

Yes our IT class in year 11 and 12 figured something like this out once. I remember these nerdy guys always getting sent out of class because a DOS looking message would appear on all students screen saying somethign like "Mr Reynold eats dick" or "Prinicipal Miskall is a lesbian".
dont know how they did it, they were all networked so something to do with that i guess, was pretty dumb.. thought it was funny at the time though.

10-24-2005, 03:47 PM	#18
NovemberRain Don't Call Me Shirley Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 79	It's a mixed bag. When I'm working with people across country who aren't very talkative like myself, it's great. In contrast, a client of mine had a new salesperson who wanted to collaborate in realtime using IMs instead of just e-mailing me the instructions. The client balked at paying my bill when he saw how many hours were tied up in that little project. If it's anything that involves money, I'd just as soon keep it in e-mail so I'll have a paper trail. __________________ "America is not a young land. She is very old. Before the white man, before the Indian, the evil was there, waiting." - William Burroughs, The Naked Lunch

10-24-2005, 07:53 PM	#19
Sun_Sparkz Has Body Temperature Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: I come from a land downunder Posts: 1,105	I use it constantly, i am on all day at work - i have a few ppl on my contacts (98% of whom i know) and i dontthink i could get through the day without that flashing orange rectangle letting me know that someone want to chat with me i dont mind who puts me on their contact list.. im usually pretty chatty. i love it for filling in time, gettin the goss.. looking at my O/Seas friends msn spaces and updating mine, i just like it. But i am 21.. so you could put it down to the SMS generation i guess..? also saves me money by talking to my brther in london.. other wise we would never communicate __________________ We'll never be as young as we are right now

02-07-2006, 11:03 PM	#21
Sun_Sparkz Has Body Temperature Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: I come from a land downunder Posts: 1,105	Yes our IT class in year 11 and 12 figured something like this out once. I remember these nerdy guys always getting sent out of class because a DOS looking message would appear on all students screen saying somethign like "Mr Reynold eats dick" or "Prinicipal Miskall is a lesbian". dont know how they did it, they were all networked so something to do with that i guess, was pretty dumb.. thought it was funny at the time though. __________________ We'll never be as young as we are right now

10-06-2005, 11:17 AM	#16
Sundae polaroid of perfection Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 24,185	My only problem with IM is that it does encourage some people to write drivel. For example "Phew its really hot here! Hehe!" or "Wow I'm so bored r u busy" Great. Only a few friends of mine do this to me - intelligent people face to face & via other mediums. But somehow they seem drawn to MSN Messenger when they have nothing to say, rather than when they do. Which doesn't seem to be the case with telephone calls, text or emails.

10-13-2005, 07:42 PM	#17
eiffelenator Irrelevant Adulterant Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 43	The fact that it is pretty much instant email makes it nice, but conversation does drag sometimes. yegah...

10-26-2005, 11:30 AM	#20
vsp Syndrome of a Down Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: West Chester Posts: 1,367	I never use AIM. At work, we have a similar system that comes in handy for quick communication, but I use it sparingly. When I was in college long ago, we used the Unix-based Zephyr message system, which had similar functionality. That we did use constantly, for both productive and frivolous effect. Interestingly, zephyr devolved into a sort of meta-message system. Someone figured out that the act of starting a message on an instance caused a "ping" to be sent out with the subject line of the message. Since most of us set it up to subscribe to all instances, we started sending pings out instead of full messages and communicating that way. Subscribing to all instances had its drawbacks, such as when one of our resident wits would convert some twisted porno .gif to text, send it on an instance in "nil2" font (which was sufficiently tiny to render the image easily discernable), and laugh as it popped up on dozens of screens in the middle of class.

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