Instant Messenging

Back in college days, I was obsessed with ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger. Almost everyone who owned a computer was using one or the other to talk to others and I thought they were the coolest things ever. In fact, I often used ICQ to ask my roommate to go to a cafeteria with me although we were only a few feet apart from each other! I had fights with my boyfriends, had all-night long girls' talk with my friends, and chatted with old friends in Japan on ICQ and IM.

Then Skype was introduced. I have been using it to call my parents in Japan on their home phone without worrying about a high telephone bill. It's amazing that now we can ask librarians at our school questions online using IM and Yahoo! Messenger.

Wikipedia names the following as instant messenging programs: Net Messenger Service, AOL Instant Messenger, Escite/Pal, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, iChat, ICQ, Jabber, Qnext, QQ, Meetro, Skype, Trillian, Yahoo! Messenger and Rediff Bol Instant Messenger.

The major benefit of using instant messenging programs is their low cost. We simply need an internet connection and the rest is free (unless we're calling a regular phone, but it's still very inexpensive). Will we still have telephones a decade from now, or even half a decade? I still use a phone myself because it's handy and simple, but my telephone usage has decreased since I started using Skype. Well, I guess instant messenging cannot supersede cell phones in terms of convenience...for now.