The Long Road

10/06/2003 Archived Entry: "Touch"

Remember way back when before the advent of Instant Messaging? Back then I used to be on the phone constantly to shoot the breeze with people or plan things to do. Nowadays tho it seems like a lot to be on the phone for more than an hour a week. The phone has now been relegated to being used for conversations that go like this "so we're meeting here at this time? ok. see ya".

But even with IM it's hard to constantly talk to people. I usually wait for people to message me to actually talk to them. I find that I only really talk to people if I'm around them; I'm probably one of the worst people for "keeping in touch" with an "away"-term. On a work term I'm not really in touch in Waterloo friends and on a school term I'm out of touch with Ottawa friends.

There are some people with whom I could have hours long conversations with in person about anything and everything but when it comes to an IM convo things generally go like "hey", "wassyo?", "not much", "kewl", "aight, lata", and that'd be it! Which is all pretty strange considering I can converse with some people online for long periods of time when I've only seen them once or twice (or never) in my life.

It doesn't seem like regular conversation strenghthens certain friendships. I know that I can usually go back and just pick things right up again with most people without having talked to them for a few months, so I miss out on some new in-jokes ("he's po"), big deal.

It also seems to me like phone calls have become more "important", like you wouldn't call someone to just chat when you can do so online. I'm always of the mind that if i'm going to call someone it'd better be for something important.

So, to sum up. I talk to people in person but not on the phone, and hardly on IM. Certainly a big shift from a few years ago.

Replies: 2 comments

Ugh. I hate IM-speak.

What is the world coming to?

Posted by Joe @ 10/07/2003 08:06 PM EST

Instant messaging is so impersonal as compared to the phone...I dislike the trend the world is taking...

Posted by dAN @ 10/07/2003 11:31 PM EST