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Gone are the days when you would have to pick up a phone, lookup a number (unless you had it memorized), call, and hope that the person you are calling will answer… these days, you jump on your computer, fire up an instant messenger program and take your pick of who you’d like to talk to. Your friends show up as little “Hi, I’m Online” icons, you can chat away while doing a million other things and not come across as being rude. I can chat and simultaneously surf websites, look at porn, play music, and even write posts to this blog. Try doing that on the phone and you’re likely to start typing what you are saying verbally, the other party is unlikely to be able to follow along, and frankly, most of your friends don’t want to know what kind of porn you’re watching. Well, ok… MY friends do, but I have weird friends.
Some added benefits of the instant communication generation:
- ability to convey in two or three characters a complex emotion, such as,
, :D, or 
etc. - ability to pause the conversation and pick up where you left off with a “brb”, “smoke break”, or “afk a sec”.
- ability to save and re-read the conversation at a later time. This is my favorite, as it allows to me to post stuff like this:
What follows is an excerpt of an instant message conversation I had with Toby* yesterday:
Toby: how do i log on to jestertunes to leave a comment?
Jester: you should see a “register” button
T: i see admin about contact and photo album
J: Hi, btw.
T: ok, i think i’ve figured it out
T: brb
J: ok
J: you don’t show up on my buddy list. you must be invisible
Toby connected (5:29:33 PM)
T: how’s that?
J: yep. you’re there now
J: you also successfully registered on the site, i just got the notification
T: yipee
J: heh. that’s right, you should be excited.. you’re in elite company.
J: I have literally tens of readers.
T: LOL
J: I’m being quite gay today… watching an Audrey Hepburn movie marathon.
T: i’m just looking up music for my ipod and checking e-mails
T: one song we didn’t mention the other night is “Imagine”…I still love that song
J: John Lennon?
T: yeah
J: Yeah. I love it. How about the Seal album
J: We listened to that a lot…
J: Kiss from a Rose
J: My ipod has gotten a recent update of stuff I hadn’t thought of in quite a while.
T: lol
T: you look good. You’ve lost a lot of weight and cut all of your hair. I like it
J: thanks…. the hair has grown back some, not sure what i’m going to do with it.
J: You look exactly the same.
J: (which is good of course)
J: well… there’s the magic disappearing/reappearing moustache
T: lol, i always get that….or OMG you look totally different….lol
T: rofl
J: that’s funny… I mostly get “I would have never recognized you.”
T: brb…smoke break
Insert 5 minute pause here.
J: I don’t remember ever using your name in a less than flattering way in the past, by the way. (just saw your comment)
T: right….[snip] This part of the conversation I’ll share soon, which details my life in Nashville, the record deal, and subsequent move to California [/snip] J: If I can find it, (and I end up seeing you next month) I have been saving something for you
T: would it be the letter i wrote?
J: lol.. no. I still have that but you’re not getting that back…
J: nor are you getting the total of 3 letters you wrote me while at basic.
T: i just about lost it when i was reading your blog. i don’t remember writing those things.
J: oh there was more I didn’t put in the blog
T: i’m so sorry…that was very vendictive of me
J: Don’t sweat it.
J: You’ll see there are worse things that have been said to me in my lifetime ;D
T: likewise…but i didn’t need to be the one to add to them…that was so out of character of me. last time…i’m sorry
J: I completely forgive you. I know what the situation was… I knew it then…
J: water under the bridge that makes for a good story now.
J: So yeah, like I was saying I have to find it, but I have an autographed cd for you
T: now you’re making me wonder
J: ok.. ill play this little game:
J: the cd also includes a personal note from the artist
J: that says, “Toby - your loss is my gain.”
T: is it your cd?
J: no
J: An artist that you really liked (and *I* really liked) that I ended up dating for a short time.
T: one of your ex’s?
T: who?
J: he was super cute, shared my birthday (though he was one year older) and I used to play his songs on my guitar all the time.
T: omg…
T: country, right?
J: yep
J: i like this game
J:
J: did you figure it out?
T: NO!
T: that was too long ago
J: here: [link to artist's webpage]**
T: You know something? I could have gone the rest of my life without knowing that.
T: you suck
The conversation went several different places as it continued… and I think it will make a good backbone to flesh out some of the stories that I want to tell here, so look for more excerpts in later posts.
*He gave me permission to use his name.
**Don’t ask me, I won’t tell you who it is. I’m crude, but I’ve still got SOME class.
