Different folks, different strokes

One of my closest friends will not get online using a chat program, which would be so much more convenient and easier to manage than phone calls and emails and letters and packages that float over the myriad oceans between us. According to her, if she signs up for one of the mail accounts that she will need to log into an instant messenger, she will be flooded with mail from everyone and every-firm that sends out spam of various kinds. There is no way I can convince her otherwise, and so we continue with emails, an occasional phone call and the annual package…

Is she right? Is the whole thing worth it? Let me count the ways how!

Many years ago, I signed in to what was known as ICQ – it still is, I am told. It worked fine for that time and place, and I managed to not just communicate with family and friends without needing to spend time and money I did not have then, but to get a whole lot more work done than I would have otherwise – instant messenger tends to shortcut the whole formality of correspondence and saves time when you need an answer to a minor question that may, nevertheless, hold up an interview or a story you may be writing. Which is the kind of sentence you cannot create on a messenger, it bogs up that give and take which is almost like talking in person!

From there, I soon graduated to MSN, which was fabulous, down to the cute little faces that you could make when you were talking to someone. It was closer to being there, as someone told me, and I loved it. From there, YAHOO was a short hop, used with those people who did not believe in hotmail. There were a few, yes. And soon after, I picked up on GOOGLETALK, which is fabulous but non-iconic, if you know what I mean; no funny faces, no cute pictures, no extras, just plain chat. But workplaces soon caught on to the chat culture and disapproved. Most instant messengers were blocked, which meant that you went bewilderingly on and off line arbitrarily, puzzling whoever you were talking to at the time. There is always a way around the firewalls that company techies install, but shhhhhhhhh….don’t tell them which one you choose!

Today I do chat with friends, family and even sometimes kitten online, even as I hop madly between windows in the course of my work. I write in one, check mail in another, surf for snippets in a third and, of course, collect background information for a story in a last. More than that, and my computer starts grumbling madly at me and my editor makes dirty cracks in an acerbic voice coloured by his envy at not being able to manage all that and more at the same time. In fact, even as I write this, I am looking at layouts for a book project, talking to a buddy, looking for mail that has not arrived and trying to figure out just what is happening in the world outside my little one.

So now back to concentrate on the most important matter of life – living it!