140Char

I listened to Net@Night today and found it interesting that it was mentioned about not using IM anymore in favour of social networking sites, Twitter and email.

Then it occurred to me: I use Adium so that I can remain connected to MSN Live, Yahoo! and Gtalk, but can’t actually remember the last time I actually used any of them to talk on, despite having a contact list that won’t fit on the screen.

I wondered if IM is ‘old hat’ now?

I did make an effort to try and switch to Skype which (with it’s sensible voice/video options) seems like the grown-ups version of IM, but again - I rarely actually do any ‘chatting’ on it via text.

It seems like mine and lots of others’ attentions are all on RSS, Twitter and comment-featured systems like FriendFeed or forums where real discussions are going on (I hear of a good, uncensored Flickr group somewhere..).

Even the kids it seems have all gone ‘Myspace’ and left IM’s behind. Especially since they have mobile phones (SMS) coming out of their ears.

The only reason I really kept my IM’s was because I was reluctant to let go, but let’s face it: anyone of any personal interest who wants to communicate online will probably have a website or blog, Flickr etc, Twitter, Skype for calls…

What use is Instant Messaging?