2 posts tagged “instant messaging”

Charles: It’s raining here
Rosa: Here too
Charles: It’s not the same rain
Rosa: I know

This is from Pretend You Can Hear Me: 21 Very Short Stories by Kio Stark. I'm in love with it.

While I was in graduate school I didn't use AIM much.  I don't think I ever would have gotten any work done.  Now that I live in my own apartment, I'm finding that I enjoy IMing again.  There is something that other people do that I don't quite understand.  The social rules of the instant message are not as solidified as talking in person, on the phone, or even in email.

So, here's my question: Why do people initiate IM conversations and then either stop responding or take a very long time to respond making the conversation useless?

I'm guessing that people are finished with the conversations and are just too stupid to say "I'll talk to you later"?  Maybe people don't want to end a conversation with one person when they're still online talking to someone else?  But why do they initiate conversation if they don't actually want to talk?

This is often why I'll put up an away message when I'm not actually away.  So if someone IMs me and I'm just not in the mood to talk to that person, well, I'm away!