Online Communication

[Rían]

Hey guys,

I was just wondering - do people IM anymore when using their computers? I remember a few years back this was popular, and I would be Mooting and often have several IM conversations going, too. It even got to the point where one person was really, REALLY talkative and I got off IM for awhile , then I was off the Moot for awhile, and now I was wondering if people use this anymore, or do they just use skype and twitter and text messages? It's just that IMing was handy when you were on the computer because it was all on the one screen (as opposed to looking at your phone), and skype is wonderful for many things, but with IM, at least you could pretend that you were going away for a bit if you wanted to not answer right away

Anyway, what's up with IMs?

[katya]

I still IM all the time. I hate texting because it's so slow (even typing feels slow sometimes and I'm a fast typer!), and I don't use skype. I prefer IMs over phone or Skype because I like to be able to multi-task, then I can justify spending more time talking to people without it taking up ALL of my time at that moment. And I like to be able to leisurely think up replies, type them out slowly and thoughtfully, as opposed to on a phone where I'm not as good at talking. I also like to talk to more than one person at once but it depends on how fast they are replying. If one person is totally focused on IMing with me, I probably won't have a lot of time to be talking to someone else at the same time.

Right now there are only two people that I really talk to on IM a whole lot (neither of whom you folks would know) but they are both dear friends who live far away and if it weren't for IM we would not communicate nearly as much as we do. Never liked talking on the phone at all but we IM for hours at a time.

[Mari]

I'm not on IM much anymore. Well, I'm pretty much always on because the programmes get started automatically when booting my computer, but I mostly appear off-line. These days I hardly have time to myself. Most of my computer time is dedicated to school, teaching or designing a website for teaching, so the time I do have the computer on for absolutely personal use I'm using it to watch a film, play a game or check in here and my other forum quickly.

[Snowdog]

Have to say I haven't used IM in years.. that is, the 'traditional' programs of AIM, Yahoo, or MSN. I do have a chat now and then on Facebook though with one of the kids or an old friend... does that count?