And I’ll just go ahead and say it: I will never be an IMer.
When I was working in Austin the whole office IMed. They even IMed with clients. In fact, me not being on IM was very inconvenient to them, so they told me.
So one day I agreed and let one of the recent college grads set me up on it. The first thing we did was pick out an Avatar for me. I didn’t know what that meant but it took us like half an hour to finish it. We had to find the perfect face, hairstyle, head scarf, earrings, sunglasses…apparently it’s all about accessorizing with Avatars. When we were done I said, “I think I sort of look like a drag queen.” She said, “Oh, that’s okay. You change it like, every day anyway.” Huh? I’m going to spend 30 minutes each day outfitting a virtual me? I don’t even spend that long dressing the three-dimensional me.
She then sent out this announcement email to the whole company saying, “Elsa is FINALLY on IM!! And look at her Avatar; it’s too cute!!”
Suddenly, I started getting flooded with IMs. I would try to respond and then more would come. It was different than email; I didn’t feel like I could ignore them. I think they know if I’m there or not. It’s very big brother, the whole thing.
I gave it about two hours and then shut it down and never opened it again. That was the most unproductive two hours of my life. All I accomplished was picking out three different hand placements for my Avatar.
So now I’m accidentally signed up for the IM that comes with Hotmail. I even have a little man at the bottom of my screen that tells me when people sign in. Yes, Jane, I get a little pop up that says you’re online. Same goes for you, Amy R! One day someone did IM me from it. I wrote back and said, “I don’t really IM…” She said, “Then why do you have MSN Instant Messenger?” I told her I had no idea.
Someone else IMed me and asked me some random question. I wrote back and then went back to work. But then they popped up again. It felt like someone was tapping me on the shoulder every five seconds! Who wants that? I answered the second question and then clicked out of the whole thing. I’m not sure but I think that might be the same as slamming a door in someone’s face or hanging up on them. If that was you, sorry about that.
I like to be able to choose when I want to respond to someone. And I like to have the option to not respond at all.
And speaking of options, check out my new Avatar:
7 comments:
woman, i am in the same boat! someone set me up w/ im and i have never ever used it! it's like email A.D.D... don't we all have enough to do?? sorry my pop-up shows up for you! just think of it as me saying hi everyday!
I don't mind that your pop-up shows up; I just feel bad that I am being big brother!
I was so glad when Baylor outlawed IM. Someone had set me up, but everyone was annoyed because I wouldn't use it.
Why can't we just e-mail, I asked?
The Avatar is cute though!
I think you can turn off the 'sign in/out' announcer. I managed to get rid of mine. I like my little guy in the corner, but only to see who's sending me emails. It lets me know if I should stop what I"m doing and check my hotmail.
IM is okay in small doses. I only use it once-in-a-blue-moon with Jane. I would go nuts if my whole office used it.
They IM like crazy here at work. I say it's lazy mostly because the girl sitting NEXT to me will IM me a question! Everyone does it here and it's really sad.
We have lost the ability of vocal communication.
I'm with you on this one Elsa. I tried IM for one day and hated it. I didn't like being interrupted. I figured I was just too old to adjust to something new like that! ha!
Yikes. Am I as old as Mee-andy??!
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