Did you know that some teenagers think that email is for talking to old people? For an entire generation, Instant Messaging is the way to communicate with friends, family, and in some cases, even the library!
At Stephen Abram's blog, he discusses the results of an AOL Instant Messenger poll about Instant Messenger usage statistics. While most of the results are in reference to teens, we can see that Instant Messaging is not just a purely teenage thing (in fact, I would probably guess that text messaging on cell phones is this generation's IM). Instant messaging allows for easy communication between two people, less formal than e-mail, and tends to look more like a conversation and less like a letter. Most instant messaging clients are free, and now there are even alternatives to downloading an IM client. Meebo, for example, allows the users of some of the most popular IM clients (AIM, YAHOO, MSN, ICQ) to connect to all of their accounts simultaneously, without downloading anything at all.
Now you get a choice. Either sign up for one of the free Instant Messenger accounts and explore the world of IM. If you need someone to IM, I have an account for all of the major ones (though, it might take me a while to remember my ICQ password), and will be happy to let you use me as a guinea pig. If you would rather just try this IM thing out first, use the Meebo chat box in the right sidebar of this page. It doesn't require an account or any downloads. Just type something in the box and send! It will tell you if I'm online or away, so you don't have to worry about wondering if I'm actually there. Happy IMing!
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