Article 2

Instant Messaging Becoming Part of College Culture

Baker, Andrew. Instant messaging becoming part of college culture. The Pendulum Online. Retrieved on 8th Mar, 2009 from
http://www.elon.edu/e-web/pendulum/Issues/2004/3_18/features/aolim.xhtml.

SUMMARY

This short article is stating a phenomena whereby college students are decreasingly communicating with phones or face-to-face even if they are just one building apart. Students do not ask for phone number as a contact medium, but instant messager ID. It is a trend as everybody seems like doing the same thing. The author understands that users nowadays only recognise instant messager services like AOL and MSN as they are the popular ones. He introduced briefly about the first instant messager service - ICQ and on how it was successfully turned popular and it started the trend of this culture. This phenomena of instant messenger communication has developed further with the integration of games, Web-cameras and going mobile. It has turned to be so important in a student's life. They use it to know what is happening around their friends while for guys in particular they use it to talk to girls whom they shy to do so off-screen. But on the other hand, there were students who do not like to use it as they think it would make them lazy. I believe this article was published in years ago as nowadays those who use computers would have at least one instant messenger account.

QUESTIONS

Do college students really care and check out what is happening to their friends through IM status message?