Film at 11

I'm not IM

Instant messaging bewilders me.

Thanks to my new job, I have decided to open up three new IM accounts -- AOL, Yahoo, and MSN. (For those interested, the login for all three is some combination of my first and last names). They are easy to use. I can contact friends and spouses with silly comments throughout the day. It is a pleasant distraction, as well as a quick and easy way to ask questions like, "Can you pick up some milk on your way home?"

That's not the bewildering part.

What bewilders me is how teenagers view IM as a social activity. They can be in a roomful of people, instant messaging far away friends, and consider it a social activity, as in "What should we do tonight? I know, let's go to the computer lab and instant message a bunch of other people." The idea that the way to spend quality time with your friends is by talking to other people who aren't in the room rather than to each other is strange. It offends me, and it makes me feel old.

Don't even get me STARTED on cell phones.

So, look for me online, but if someone else is in my office, expect to be ignored. I'll choose faces over screen names any day.

Posted by Meredith at September 15, 2003 02:51 PM