The Reality of Instant Messaging :: Internet Communication IM Chat Essays

The Reality of Instant Messaging â€Å"Instant messaging, also referred to as IM or Buddy Lists, is a program or communication service that lets you communicate with someone else using the same program at the same time† (YouCanWorkFromAnywhere.com). It is a means of chatting where people send each other short messages electronically. It can be looked at as something between e-mail or a phone call; an e-mail allows you the time to think things out before you type, and a phone call which is an immediate conversation that is going on â€Å"right now,† which are both characteristics of IM. As great as this concept does sound, there is much more to instant messaging, which can be looked at as harmful or beneficial to those using it. What are some of the good things about instant messaging? It is an easy, fast and direct way of communicating. It operates at a much quicker pace than that of e-mail, which has to wait on endless writing and replying. It is also a good way for people to communicate with their friends, family and teachers, or for college students to catch up with people from back home or at other schools. It is free, and free is much cheaper than paying long distance bills. A more specific beneficial matter related to instant messaging is how people, especially teenagers, use this program to express feelings that they would not express otherwise, mainly because there is a comfort and distance associated with this form of communication. According to a study conducted by a professor at Cornell University, Jeffrey Hancock, â€Å"we fib less frequently when we’re online than when we’re talking in person† (The Honesty Virus, The New York Times, March 21, 2004). Hancock asked 30 of his undergraduates to record all of their communications of any form for one week, including all of the lies that they told. When he tallied the results, he found that students had mishandled the truth in about one-quarter of all face-to-face conversations, and in a whopping 37 percent of phone calls. But when they went into cyberspace, they turned into Boy Scouts: only 1 in 5 instant-messaging chats contained a lie, and barely 14 percent of e-mail messages were dishonest.