I have mixed feelings about instant messaging. I began instant messaging at a super young age (maybe 4th grade?) using AOL instant messenger. It have always enjoyed it, but used it for purely social purposes. Now that I am a big girl (grown up with job and all) it is odd to see the same technology used for business. It is definitely handy, but I was thrown off at first when I see conversations like this:
Boss: UT?
Me: ?
Me: Oh, Yes. What's up?
Boss: plz snd me ur l8tst deck.
Me: okay.
For the record, I made this up... however it represents a few things that shocked me at first when I entered the workplace:
A) That senior people in the company use shortened language. I have always been a big proponent of full sentences (spell it all the way out, add punctuation, even when pinging). So it seems a little odd for me to communicate this way or have people communicate to me this way. I realize this makes me old school, but I dunno... it just is a personal preference.
B) The total lack of greeting! When I ping some people they respond, y? (meaning yes?) Seriously!!! At least say hello. I make a point to greet people before asking them for something, please try to reciprocrate! I mean we don't answer the phone, yes? We might as well say... WHAT DO YOU WANT???!
Do you have any rules for using im? What are your favorite im phrases?
Random Fact: Did you know in India they use s to repleace y for yes? Totally confusing at first. So when someone responds s, don't worry... they mean yes!
I had never used IM before my current job because it seemed silly and was turned off by all the shortened language crap that you mentioned above. However, I use it all day long at my current job (we use Yahoo! Messenger, naturally) and it is soooooo handy. But I did have to get used to all the crazy language stuff. I also like to write full sentences, but I have found places where I can compromise in order to be slightly faster and appear a little less stuffy (such as not capitalizing beginnings of sentences and leaving off final periods, etc). I have also discovered that emoticons are not stupid - they can be crucial in clarifying statements that might otherwise be ambiguous in such a terse form of communication as IM.
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