[Infowarrior] - Instant Messaging for Introverts

[Richard Forno]

Opinion | 04 Apr 2008 |

Instant Messaging for Introverts
by Joe Kissell

http://db.tidbits.com/article/9544

This fellow nicely sums up nearly my exact sentiment on Instant Messaging.
I thought I was the only one who felt this way!!!   More specifically, while
I'm not as 100% black-and-white as he writes  (ie, I don't mind chatting
around when working if I'm so inclined every now and then) this article
extract pretty much is my take on the IM thing.....

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> Unlike many people, when I'm in front of my computer, I'm working, which means
> I'm concentrating on something. I'm writing an article, or a book, or an email
> message, trying to come up with exactly the right way to phrase some sentence
> or express a certain point. Or I'm programming, trying to solve some logic
> problem. Or I'm reading an article. Whatever the activity, it's something to
> which I am predisposed to devote my entire attention. If the phone rings, or
> my wife asks me a question, or an iCal alarm goes off, it breaks my
> concentration in a way that's frustrating to recover from. I lose my mental
> place, and it takes me a long time to get back into that same train of thought
> and finish whatever I was working on. I'm not saying I need to write an entire
> book without any interruptions, but when my mind is actively juggling
> information, I need to complete that particular thought (or block of code, or
> paragraph) before moving on to something else.
> 
> This is why I love email as a mode of communication. I get many dozens of
> messages every day, but I can answer them whenever I want. I don't have to
> look at them right in the middle of this paragraph; I can wait five or ten
> minutes - it doesn't matter (though in practice, I usually answer email very
> quickly). Voicemail can make handling phone calls similarly convenient. But
> instant messaging isn't like that. If my status shows that I'm online, then
> people expect an immediate response, and even though I could choose not to
> respond, I'd still have the blinking, bouncing, or beeping notification
> interrupting my train of thought - it isn't an improvement for me.
> 
> So in terms of IM status, I never consider myself "available" in the sense of
> "interruptible." Ever. There is no time of any day, under any circumstances,
> when I think to myself, "I really don't mind being interrupted now." If I'm
> not at my computer, then most likely a phone call or a knock at the door won't
> seem like an interruption. But if I am at my computer, I'm concentrating,
> which means I'm not "available" - I do mind being interrupted. And if my
> status shows that I'm unavailable, as it invariably does when I'm logged into
> iChat, most people will refrain from trying to start a conversation - meaning
> I might as well be entirely offline.

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