winks and webcams

I’m a heavy instant messaging user, and always have been. I started back in my first undergrad, when I got an account on my college’s VMS system. It was quickly discovered that you could write to someone else’s terminal, and we used that a lot like you’d use an instant messenger today. In 1996, ICQ came out, and I quickly hopped on board, using it to keep in contact with friends and family around the world. It was the coolest thing ever. I haven’t let up ever since. I’ll even admit to sending an IM to someone when I’m sitting in the same room as they are. (Sigh.)

I’ve noticed that, even though IM clients have gotten a lot more fully-featured, I just don’t use all of these extra features. At heart, I’m a text girl. If you ever chat with me, you’ll find out that the most advanced thing that I use is a smiley, but I really only use two (the basic smiley and the sticking my tongue out at you).

Earlier this week, I was talking with one of my MacBU co-workers about this. He laughed and agreed with me. He’s got a sibling living overseas and another in Chicago. They all got webcams and said that they’d video chat all the time. It’s never happened. Why is that?

After talking, we agreed that it was two things. First of all, a video chat seems like it’s asking a lot out of the other person. If I send a text message to someone and they don’t respond immediately, I assume that they’re busy or not at their computer. If I call someone and get voicemail, it’s just not a big deal. But video chat somehow feels ... I don’t know, bigger maybe.

The other issue is one that I hesitate to admit to, but everyone probably knows this already. If I’m IMing with you, I’m probably multitasking. It’s exceptionally unlikely that I’m sitting with Messenger open waiting breathlessly for your next message. Likewise, with a phone call, it’s possible for me to multitask too. (This is the only way that I maintain my sanity when talking to my mom. Do I really need to know what Oprah was wearing today?) The only way that my desk gets cleaned is because I’m digging my way to the bottom of the stack of papers on it while I’m on the phone. But I can’t do that during a video chat. The video chat has to have my 100% undivided attention. I can’t work, I can’t surf the web, I can’t clean my desk.

So I just don’t do it. I wonder if the first reason would go away if I were to just get in the habit of video chatting. Maybe it only seems big and invasive because I don’t do it. But the second ... oh, that second one is the deal-breaker. Does my mom really need to know how many times I roll my eyes during our conversations? (Even worse, does my manager?) (That’s a joke, boss!)

I just go for the basics. There’s nothing that I do in an IM client that I couldn’t do back in my VMS days. Okay, the IM client gives me a graphic smiley instead of my colon-bracket one, but I could easily live without that. Maybe my IM usage goes back to those days, in using text and only text to get my message across. If I had begun IMing when there were more advanced features, would they be a part of my standard usage?

I’m going to add a huge disclaimer here. What I am writing here is in absolutely completely 100% unrelated to any MacBU work on Messenger. This isn’t intended as a justification of not having AV support in Messenger yet. I’m only exploring my own use of IM, and being a little bit afraid to realise that I’ve got IM conversation histories that are 10 years old. I'm not about to say that my use is representative of anyone's use other than my own (and maybe the colleague that I was discussing this stuff with, but I wouldn't even go that far).

Comments

• Anonymous
  October 13, 2006
  I totally get you. It was fun reading your post, cause it reminded me of MY undergrad days using unix and "send" and "talk". Good old days (I'll even go to say that 'talk' helped change my life from single to married, so I have fond memories of the application). By the way, another thing I don't get is why in the world we need 20 different IM protocols. Couldn't everyone just come up to agree in a protocol and let we all talk? These days, I use a client that will talk to all networks, and I have one account with each. But I never know which one I am using, I just care that my friend is online... Using the phone analogy, why do I need 4 phone numbers to be able to talk to all my friends? About video, it was a nice addition. I agree with taking 100% of attention. But it is useful in my case. I live abroad, and have been away from home for a while now. My parents like the idea of the video chat, and it's relaxing to see the familiar faces every weekend. I reserve 2 hours of my Sunday just to video chat with them. But that is a special case... Unfortunately, the only option on the Mac with a decent video to PCs and the windows world is skype. Yet another interface and account to create. Oh well...

• Anonymous
  October 14, 2006
  i can understand your feelings about video chat but youre looking at it only from the point of your work desk... most people spend time chatting at home also and it is a super way to spend time with loved ones that arent able to visit weekly... my son works at apple in cupertino and i live on the gulf coast so we video chat most evenings.. it's really much less intrusive than you think... it's just as if he's sitting here in my kitchen for an hour or so doing work or browsing on his mac while i get caught up on my rss reading and sharing good finds with him ...only talking occasionally...  it's much more like a visit than a phone call.. no pressure to be continually talking... just hangin out... i love it!

• Anonymous
  October 14, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 16, 2006
  The comment has been removed