Communication

I would like to credit my friend Emmet, the operator of Compos Mentis, for precipitating this particular post in his capitulation to instant messenger. My sister also bears some blame as she recently opened a Facebook account of her own.

In high school, I held out against instant messengers. In classes, I felt like I miss something important when people would talk about their instant messenger conversations that followed phone calls to the same people. Why didn’t you just stay on the phone with them if you had something to say? I ended up giving in shortly before taking for college. I had no cell phone and the opportunity to keep in touch with my friends for free was too much to pass up. So, I picked up an MSN Messenger account, the instant messenger of choice for most of my friends. And it was good.

Then I come to college and am introduced to two new ways to keep in touch, AIM (AOL’s own instant messenger) and Facebook. For those who are unaware of the addiction that is Facebook, here’s a quickie description. More than anything else, it’s a friend finder. You can list your hobbies, interests and favorite music, movies and television shows and put up pictures and stuff. Everything you post to your profile on Facebook is linked to an insane degree. With a few clicks, you can find everyone else in your school who enjoys rock climbing or Broadway musicals and pictures of them. On top of this, Facebook also offers some messaging capabilities in the form of a publicly viewable Wall and private mail system. I end up getting accounts with both, AIM because it’s the instant messenger of choice of about everyone who didn’t attend my high school and Facebook because it sounded fun.

Now I ponder the point of them. Why message someone far away when a phone call is so much more personal? What could possibly be meaningful said in the two lines that often compose a Facebook Wall post? I think I have to an answer. As one friend said in paraphrase after pushing a mutual friend to get on to Facebook, “It’s a matter of intimacy. I don’t know her well enough to give her a call or knock on her door.” Facebook is the mid-ground between tight friends and casual acquaintances. Messenger has the same benefits and, like I wrote before, it’s a free way to keep in touch that enables a higher degree of response than e-mail.

There we go. My justification for partaking in the sorts of hideously popular things I eschew.