A New Way of Connecting The Instant Messenger Generation

Author: Lanford Beard

What's your screen name? Which "Buddy Icon" represents you and only you? These are the benchmarks of a new culture — that of the IM Generation.

In today's Internet-dominated world, the idea of the Instant Message (IM, an acronym interchangeable with Instant Messenger, the software used to send the messages) touches nearly everyone. With IM services provided by, among others, America Online, Lycos, Yahoo and the Microsoft Network, communication for the computer literate has become much cheaper and easier than the weekly phone calls and letter writing that our parents and the generations before them knew.

Sure, the old standbys haven't lost their value since, as Lauren Aldrich '04 put it, "humor and irony are easily misinterpreted during a conversation in which the human voice is replaced by a metallic chime." But for those in need of a quick communication fix that's not worth a costly PinBill charge, IM seems like the perfect solution.

Chatting, while still the most popular use of the medium, is only one of the features that most Instant Messaging services provide. AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) allows for sending and receiving files, playing games, selecting a specialized "Buddy Icon," sending IM greetings and universalizing a particular "Buddy List" so that any computer will hold that Buddy List as long as the right screen name and password are entered.

Furthermore, since the service is free as opposed to a flat rate or an hourly cost like AOL itself, one can get an IM name (up to seven, actually) and sign on 24 hours a day, seven days a week or not at all.

Away messages are a few lines of text that can be programmed to flash up on the screen when a person is removed from his or her computer. The message are to today's generation what answering machines were to the generation preceding ours. They provide an outlet for frustration or inspiration, as one can write anything he or she wants to inform his or her friends.

Quotes used as away messages are a common favorite, but more powerful is the ability to say where you'll be and the approximate time you'll be back so that friends can know your schedule, only using the phone as a last resort.

With so much convenience and anonymity, now it is safe to segue into the dangers that IM so obviously brings with it.

First, it is addictive. Don't want to write that eight to 10 page paper due tomorrow just yet? IM! Suddenly it is extremely tempting to pore over the Internet finding the perfect "Buddy Icon" or quote for your away message. Or maybe even talk to your friends (a novel concept).

Only those who have acquired the ever-important skill of multi-tasking should dare to engage in an IM chat session (with one or more friends) while trying to research and put thoughts together in a cohesive manner. And even those who can do this successfully should give it a second thought because suddenly your chat and paper start to run into one another in some mutant hybrid where you are chatting with your friend about international politics and writing to your professor about the tawdry events of this year's Winter Carnival Ball.

Second, the anonymity of faceless, voiceless letters on an IM screen can prove pretty tricky.

I know that I've talked for a good 15 minutes to a friend before only days later discovering that I wasn't talking to that friend at all but another friend pretending to be the first friend. Complicated? Yes. Potentially embarrassing? Definitely.

Janine Knight '03 admitted that her father was at first adverse to the idea of IM because "he thinks that chat rooms lead to Internet romances" and other dangers, such as "you meeting the person that you have been chatting with, and they murder you." With today's media savvy, hacker-friendly world, these scenarios are certainly not uncommon.

Third, it is entirely too easy to become an IM ghost. Not only is AIM convenient to chat with people that you want to talk to, but away messages and the ability to block buddies are convenient ways to ignore people that you never want to talk to again (or at least for the next few hours, days or weeks).

With the constant connection that Middlebury's ethernet offers, why would anyone ever need to sign off? Whether one is off to class, at a screening or studying in Bicentennial Hall, leaving IM on and being "idle" is much easier than turning it on and off every time you leave and come back.

And it works the other way, too. If you are the type to only sign on when looking for a specific person, the likelihood that he or she is actually signed on and not idle or away is low for quintessential IM addicts.

Basically, IM allows anyone to be commitment-free, unavailable and easily misunderstood through countless memoranda. Just about perfect training for corporate America, wouldn't you say?

Seriously, though, while the benefits are occasionally tainted by an undercurrent of shadiness or confusion, the convenience of IM cannot go unnoticed. The moral? Use discretion with your chosen method of communication.

When you need to have a serious talk or really need to remember the sound of someone's voice, nothing beats the telephone. When you want to exchange witty repartee or perhaps a quick picture of yourself with friends and strangers alike, IM is your answer.