Instant Messaging and Me: AmitL

Yahoo!!(Pun intended) Instant Messaging! Anytime, anywhere- on your PC or your laptop or your cellphone. If you don’t use any of the messengers, you are looked at with pity. Like you were an untouchable. As if you’re not from this planet. Why, anybody who’s somebody has a messenger id and chats with his or her family, girlfriends,boyfriends, pals,even unknown people thusly, be it a three year ole or a thirty three year ole or even a seventy year ole. Who has the time or the inclination to go to Archies, buy some stationery, some good fountain pens and then pen down a letter, for heavens sake?(That is a monologue I heard from someone, some time back. For me, that’d still be a pleasant event.)

Today, instant messaging is all the rage. It’s the quickest form of communication with anyone around the world. When the internet and IMing first became popular(Was that in y2k or earlier?*muses*), I remember actually being afraid to log on to YM or MSN. Perhaps it was the fear that it would bring with it a virus which would foul up the precious computer(And, believe me, even a Pentium I was more precious than the latest models today) which I just couldn’t have afforded to get removed.

I also remember being thrilled to bits, about having created my first yahoo and hotmail ids. And, it was even more of a thrill to know about msn messenger and yahoo messenger, which were totally new concepts.

In the beginning, conversations used to last for hours, with all the developments of the last few days being discussed with friends/ family, down to the minutest details, including how the neighbour’s cat had run away with the other neighbour’s dog.

Conversations range from the most inane to the most serious to the most humorous, depending on who you’re chatting with. Someone could be chiding you for not keeping in touch, someone could be conveying their happiness at being able to keep in touch. (I usually stay in invisi mode on them, so it’s usually the first one. LOL).

----

Footnote: IMing is a boon for expats who're alone out here, with their families at home. Every week, they have an hour or two or three fixed, when they give a missed call to their wife/GF/BF/anyone, and that's the signal - come on line.They settle themselves at the cyber cafe with or without a cuppa coffee, and begin their chat with everyone they know- Bhai,Behen,Kaka,Kaki,Mama Mami,Dada, Dadi...the cam's definitely switched on,and,I can imagine everyone on the other side being thrilled as well.

----

On the inane side, what would you make of such gibberish, if you were not used to messenger- ing lingo:

BTW, AFAIK him, he must be ROFLLHAO at how we us. LOL.

Anyway, I’ve GTG now. TTYL, in the next post. HWP.

(Anyone willing to decipher the above, without googling? If you do, you're a true messenger user)