Instant Messaging and Me - Amrita (Red Soul)

I started chatting online when I was in high school. Since then, I've seen Rediff Bol, Yahoo Messenger, MSN, GTalk etc, and avoided some like AIM or AOL because they never really crossed path with me. It was a wonder in the beginning for me because I had never communicated openly with even my friends in school, and here I was: just username and password away from millions of fascinating people, all over the world, as if just sitting there, typing away to talk to me about their culture, their countries, their lives, their college grades or boyfriends/girlfriends. When it comes to something new, I always get greedy about it. I want to have it all. And such a platform was just what I needed to really start the process which I loved so much - observing people going through their lives.

I made some really great friends through IMs. With it, I've lived red and blue times (happy and sad times.. lol). At times in India, when my internet package used to get over, it felt like I was so far away from the world - I had to reconnect to my space, to my comfort zone which I had created in my messenger list, to keep in touch with my best friends that I had made online.

Instant Messaging and me are like best buddies now. I've shared good music through it, movie reviews and updated my to-read books lists all the time through chatting with friends. These days, who really has the time and energy to talk on phone. IMs are very convenient to keep relationships intact, without letting a lot of distance come between the people who mean a lot to me. I have grown as a better person through the things I have learnt from people, strangers or friends through this little chat software. I love Technology when it is used in the right way. (This is how I would have concluded my school essay on "Science - a boon to the society or otherwise?" :p ) Way to go IMs!!

P.S. Oops I missed Skype!! I remember I once had a chat with an elderly African American man who was still enraged at every mention of a blonde because of all the racism against blacks in the early years. It gave me an insight to a black American man's feelings in current world and it shook me. This was just before I was preparing myself to come to US to study. So you can imagine how IM touches you.