In the last year, I've started to get into Instant Messaging. There's a great client called Jabber which allows you to 'talk' to most of the rest of the clients; MSN, AOL, Yahoo! etc.
The thing that's weird with it is that it *really is* a different kind of communication. For example, my best male mate, who I've known for eight years, is traditionally a kind of private bloke. We started instant messaging at the beginning of the year (he lives miles away from me) and all of a sudden, the conversation was much more open.
It got to the stage where we'd 'virtually' arrange to go to the pub together. We'd buy beer and fags, keep the evening free and sit at our computers, drinking, smoking and chatting.
Similarly, I recently started chatting with a new mate over IM. Started talking business but realised we're both night people and now talk all manner of rubbish until the early hours. And, while it would be weird if we went to the pub with each other every day, sitting and chatting over IM has enough distance about it not to seem too 'full on.'
It's like the computer gives some kind of 'buffer zone' between the people chatting so it's safer to be yourself. Also, there are no non-verbal clues, so you have to spell out what you really mean.
On the one hand, it feels like a deeply sad thing to be doing. But on the other, it's good to talk.
Posted by emilyd at September 03, 2002 04:55 PM