Younger Than Thou: Instant Messaging

On 1/10/07, tidbits-talktidbits.com <tidbits-talktidbits.com> wrote:
> Younger Than Thou: Instant Messaging
> (http://db.tidbits.com/article/8804) seemed to be more about the how,
> which seems uninteresting, versus the why.

What was interesting was learning how Dan (& maybe his peers) takes
certain cues (beyond emoticons) to be indicator(s) of mood/emotion,
but that was about it, really. I was more impressed with his $2000
college budget article.

>....
> I do sort of wish that my email client had some more IM-ish factors in
> its interface, perhaps allowing me to float a little window on top of
> everything else that would show me what's up with the latest emails
> I've gotten or view and respond to email in a more IM-ish way. I would
> want to be able to turn it off, however, during periods of high
> traffic.

Have you tried (or know of) GMail? It has a built in chat client that
behaves just like that. You can only use it with other Gmail users,
but Jabber-enabled chat clients can see & talk to you when you come
online. I can send you an invite if you're interested.

Regards,

GAM

From one old fogie to another,
     I think the reason the kids want to IM, is because they know you can hear them talking, and that you know that they aren't doing whatever they are supposed to be doing. 

Denis, yet another old fogie

What I find useful about IM is the simultaneous convenience of having
someone "nearby" while being able to keep them at a distance and not
taking up too much time. I can ping someone if I have a quick
question -- without the chitchat and pleasantries needed on the
phone, or the elaborate structure of an email. IM as a medium puts
value on concise communications, much like a telegram -- I like that.
(I'd pull out Sherlock Holmes quotes on telegrams, but that'd take
too long. Suffice to say he valued them for similar reasons.) On
the flip side of that immediacy, I can turn it off on a whim.

I don't think this is nearly as generational as those on the "out"
seem to think. At 35 I IM on a regular, daily basis, often with a
number of simultaneous chats going on. I started IMing on American
Online in the early 90s, used Timbuktu's Chat feature for a while,
and then with AIM once it became free to the masses.

I think the observation about having an IMing peer group is spot-on.
My wife and I IM on a daily basis (between home and work, or work and
work), I "speak" with several friends nearly every day via IM. My
dad (now 65 and retired) IMs with me, and he's usually the first one
to start a conversation. I regularly IM with coworkers in other
buildings instead of using the phone (requires too much attention on
my part) or email (response time is too unknown), with friends
scattered about the country, and with vendors. Like any network, its
value goes up with the number of "nodes" available.

At work we're bringing up a Jabber-based IM service, in recognition
of IM's growth as a business communications channel -- right
alongside email, fax and dead trees. One of the drivers was the need
for identity verification through use of the campus network ID. The
response from the campus was, to borrow a phrase, "It's about damn
time!"


--
Andrew Laurence
atlaurenuci.edu

"TidBITS Talk" <tidbits-talktidbits.com> writes:
>I don't think this is nearly as generational as those on the "out"
>seem to think. At 35 I IM on a regular, daily basis, often with a
>number of simultaneous chats going on. I started IMing on American
>Online in the early 90s, used Timbuktu's Chat feature for a while,
>and then with AIM once it became free to the masses.

I am 60 and have my iChat open 90% of the time that I am on the computer,
which is certainly over 4 hrs/day.

I found Dan's article very informative, as to why and how folks would use IM, having heard of it for a while, but never used it. I think we need some follow-up articles about the technical issues: different IM systems (yahoo, aol...), software recommendations for different platforms (I use OS 9, Win2K, and OS X about equally), security, privacy and spam issues, hardware issues (mobile platforms), how IM works over wireless devices, phones, etc +++

Q. 1:I typically use different computers around my workplace throughout the day, running the different OS's above. Could I run an IM program on more than 1 machine simultaneously, i.e. so that if I post a message to someone on one machine, that I could see that thread with the other guy's response and be able to answer from a different machine? Or from a cell phone if I leave office for a while? In other words, would IM clients running on different machines at various locations stay aware of the updated thread?

Q. 2: What is the difference between SMS, text messaging, and IM?

TIA

This article was right on target
I really enjoyed it.
I visit with my 13 year old granddaughter about this from time to
time and have learned a lot.
I too, like IM and email and such.
I teach online classes for HVACReducation.net and the discussion
boards wind up sounding just like a F2F class.
Thanks for more insight into those growing up digital.

Mark I. Clemons
Master Teacher/Author/Speaker
M.S. Ed., NBCT, NATE
Creating curriculum, books and articles that empower successful
teaching, learning and living
Check out my new book at this link to Amazon.com
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Anyone finding this thread interesting might also find this NY Mag article a good read (long, but good...):

http://nymag.com/news/features/27341/



- Terry