Keep in touch with instant messenger

Connect with family and friends — immediately

By Christine Pilkington

I see my good friend Jennifer every five weeks or so — sometimes less. Between our busy careers and personal obligations, we can barely make the time for regular socializing. But despite our infrequent visits, we seem to keep up to date. We communicate mostly through instant messaging (IM).

We are all trying to save time these days, and while IM does not replace human interaction, it does offer an ongoing opportunity to stay connected to family and friends for a few short moments daily.

Going beyond e-mail

E-mail has provided us with a way to communicate over distance and allows us to stay in touch regularly. But instant messaging takes this concept a step further by creating an atmosphere of instantaneous conversation that is both warm and, yes, even engaging.

Jo, a creative director, keeps in touch with her nephew through chat. “[We] are able to spend a little more quality time just the two of us, which we never were able to do before.”

After canvassing a few IM devotees, I’ve realized that chat has all the appeal of e-mail — and more. While e-mail continues to serve its purpose, my fondness for IM is growing as I realize the benefits of this real-time medium. If you have never experienced instant messaging before, perhaps the following reasons will help you take the plunge.

Save time

Consider all of the times you picked up the phone because e-mail was taking too long. The pace of an IM conversation is vastly faster than most e-mail threads and only marginally slower than regular conversations.

“I use Windows Live Messenger a lot because it enables me to get answers from people quickly — be it personal or professional,” says Jennifer, who recently gave away a hockey ticket to a person who sent her the first instant message.

Chatting has replaced my two-hour telephone jam sessions. With its ease and informality, instant messaging can be used for daily five-minute exchanges about the weather or longer conversations about love and life.

Stay connected over long distances

My friend Chris wishes more of her friends used chat software: “It would be so much easier to connect with them — even just to say hello.”

Internet users often claim that e-mail has improved their bonds with relatives by increasing the frequency of communication and often replaces the telephone.

Jennifer finds Windows Live Messenger to be useful for keeping in touch with friends who are far away: “I regularly IM with people in London, Tokyo [and] Australia.” Instant messaging is the online text equivalent of a telephone call but without the long distance charges.

In addition to chatting, Windows Live Messenger users can create their own space online to share thoughts, photos and videos with friends and family. Windows Live Spaces offers people the chance to share what’s going on in their lives with whoever logs onto their Space.

Creating a Windows Live Space is simple. Visit the Windows Live Spaces home page, and choose to create your Space. Customize the look with different colours and layouts, share your thoughts in a blog, and post your favourite photos.

Get to the point — fast

What is difficult to say in real life can somehow become easier through the computer.

I’ve often used a chat window to request, receive and administer advice on sticky topics or situations. Like the majority of online women who believe that e-mail has improved communication with friends and family, I am convinced that IM has allowed me to get closer, faster, with my friends.

But chatting has some added advantages over e-mail. Even if you say something you later regret, IM conversations are more disposable than e-mail. While discretion should be used in any digital exchange, people rarely check message history or save chat conversations.

Chat is, well, chatty

Chat strips out formalities. “[With] e-mail you actually have to put some effort into writing and addressing,” says Jennifer.

Instant messaging closely resembles regular conversation and its immediacy by allowing the user to send short messages back and forth in real time. This similarity to regular conversation is what gives IM the biggest advantage over e-mail: chat gives you the feeling of actively participating in a conversation.