By JJ Bowman
News Editor
Since most college campuses guarantee free, non-stop Internet access before they can assure a room free of ants, mildew or an obnoxious roommate, we now have a permanent means of communication – America Online Instant Messenger, or AIM. And who can now imagine life without it?
Sure, we may have become utterly dependent on a means of communication that hardly existed six years ago, but think of all the luxuries we’ve gained.
Instant messaging has given us a new vernacular. Expressions such as lol (laugh out loud), brb (be right back), flnlfl (fat, lonely nerd looking for love) have been etched in our communication patterns.
Through AIM, students improve their multi-tasking skills. By graduation, practically everyone who instant messages can arrange plans for the evening, discuss the escapades of the previous night and catch up with an old friend from back home all while faking through a term paper.
Yes, the future of college students looks bright. Still, some guidelines worth sharing have benefited me in the age of instant messaging.
First, choose a screen name wisely. Sure “LisaTurtleLuver,” “Dungeon-Dragon666” or “HootieRocks899” may have been appropriate a few years back, but lifestyles change.
Second, let your buddy list grow. Scrolling down the list then becomes a trip into the vault of your life’s supporting characters and bit players. I have more than 50 on mine whom I haven’t spoken to in at least a year, and at least one on my list has passed away.
There are some practical benefits to letting lists grow. You may not think your 10th grade lab partner has much affect on your life now, but when a death, marriage or other big news shakes your life, instant messaging can be the quickest and easiest mode of communication.
The third and most important piece to surviving the age of AIM, I’ve learned, is to have proper away-message etiquette.
Be honest with yourself. How much time each day do you spend checking other people’s away messages? Probably more than you’d care to admit.
Scrolling down one’s buddy list and reading the pearls of wisdom fellow students bestow upon their peers is as common as opening the refrigerator every 45 seconds on the eve of an exam.
And since as the semester wears on students have more difficulty staying in touch with those who live outside their direct paths, many can only keep up with friends through away messages.
For that reason I cannot comprehend why people stuff messages with such insights as, “Each moment is a precious flower: Tear off the pedal and a piece of your heart withers away into eternal forlornness.”
Typically I can respond to such comments in only one way – an apoplectic fit.
I, unfortunately, did not acquire that wisdom until recently. Before, anyone could tell how far along the Great Books Colloquium I had traveled just by the philosopher I chose to feature.
A friend of mine put it best when she said something to the effect of, “Away messages should either make people laugh or tell them where you are.”
Those three lessons have helped me reach my potential with AIM.
And how much better we will all be once its power is fully realized.
After dates in the future, “I’ll give you a call?” will be replaced by “I’ll see you online?”
“Sorry,” she’ll say. “I don’t give out my screen name on first dates.”
January 23, 2003