Instant Response to Messaging

Jeneane takes issue with some of what I plan (um, planned) on saying to a conference on instant messaging. I, naively, suggest that the at-work use of IM will take on the flavor of its at-home use. Jeneane responds:

For me, IM in the work world has become less like chatting and more like an air raid siren—red alert, incoming incoming! I need help putting out a fire. Which is all fine—that’s what we’re paid for. But it’s definitely not like my home IM experience.

Tom Matrullo thinks I’ve too readily assimilated the at-home use to other, more public Web conversational forms:

IM is more like typing through a telephone; it can be intense and tends to grab all my attention. … [I]n my experience of IM conversation, not much in the way of public speech seems to occur, and there seems little motivation for masks and personae.

What you say seems right on the mark. Thanks for the help, Jeneane and Tom.

Categories: Uncategorized dw