Task: Using ICQ, yahoo chat, Messeger, virtual or webct chat, arrange a discussion with your peers. Talk about which chat service you prefer, and what forms of communication chat is most useful for. How does the method you are familiar with appear to differ from other chat or messaging? Which system do you prefer?
Log entry: I’d never used an Internet chat program before this exercise, so it was all new to me. I signed up to Messenger and ICQ, but found the ICQ interface a bit harder to use.
I had a chat with classmates using Messenger. From the group chat exercise and discussions on the Bulletin Board, I’d say that most classmates tend to prefer using Messenger. Others use more than one chat program, such as ICQ or Pidgin.
I find that chat is useful if you’d like to get an immediate (synchronous) response from a contact. It’s also a useful way of checking to see if a contact is online (or wants to let people know that they’re online).
Chat also tends to be more conducive to informal conversation than using email or a bulletin board. I think this is because the messages are perceived as being more ephemeral than email, as most people are aware that email in particular can be stored. (While chat messages can also be saved, it’s not a prominent feature and I think we’re generally less conscious of this.) On the Bulletin Board people tend to choose their words more carefully, as it’s a persistent record.
This mode of internet communication can also get fairly close to synchronous communication. For example, there are pauses as in any normal conversation, and you can see when someone’s about to say something (they’re typing). Because chat is almost synchronous, people tend to have shorter messages and use more abbreviation. I think this reflects an awareness that people’s attention can be limited, so people need to keep messages short and punchy to hold people’s attention.
