Free Instant Messaging
Free instant messaging has become a real favorite among many people, especially in social settings to talk and share ideas and thoughts from the comfort and safety of their home. This is especially true for dating and chat room sites where the idea is to find those with similar interests and goals. Instant messaging, often called IM, works when two people have the capability to send real time messages to one another. After all, its possibler to send an email that may or may not be opened for hours or days after being sent, but free IM means that you are watching the person's response to you right on the screen as the dialogue occurs. This is not a typical business application. Too often, people are busy with other responsibilities at work and don't have time to just sit and chat online.
However, many businesses are beginning to experiment with using free instant messaging for communication between team members. With many businesses now using the team concept for research, development and marketing, the reality becomes more important for people to communicate with one another within the team environment. As a result, those used to using IM at home are more comfortable using IM at work, often with more regularity than even phone messaging. This is especially true among Gen Y employees. Of course, strict policies on what can be communicated among IM users at work must be developed in order to minimize security breaches. However, when the IM is used only within a business network, security issues may not even be a concern.
In times past, free instant messaging was only available for those on the same IM service provider. In recent years, these providers have made texting much easier for users on different IM services to communicate with one another. Today, most people who use these services have a buddy list, which is comprised of the many people they talk to on a regular basis. A person can check that buddy list to see who is online at the time and begin talking to them if desired. IM is used in dozens of websites where people who have various interests can talk to one another. One of the popular places where IM is used on a regular basis is on websites where singles talk frequently. IM chatting is a popular way of communicating because anonymity can be maintained, providing a source of security.
IM is certainly not a secure way for people to communicate. IM is vulnerable to hackers, at least on some level and is not at all recommended for passing along personal or important information. This form of communicating is strictly for grins, giggles and flirting. When visiting free instant messaging sites, an onlooker is certainly aware of the many emoticons that people use along with their text in order to show some emotion. These emoticons, in the forms of small cartoon characters can certainly send almost instantaneously the feelings behind certain words and phrases.
When a person enters into a chat room where free instant messaging is going on, it can appear to be an alien language being typed on the monitor. IM is a language of shortcuts and acronyms that needs to be learned before jumping in and trying to chat away. For example, I could give you legal advice, but IANAL. I am not a lawyer. And if a group of people didn't want a new chatter coming in and joining the conversation, somee of the participants might say NIMBY. Not in my back yard. And when parents are in the room and a teen cannot talk freely, it's P911.
There are a number of services that will allow a person to download files in order to have free instant messaging capability. Yahoo, AOL, Google, Skype, and dozens more providers will provide downloadable software that will enable a user to begin communicating through text. In many cases, the buddies can be from other servers and providers, but check with the website before assuming you will be able to talk with just anyone. Once logged on, the magic of IM begins, which is so much better than emailing because one can know instantly that a person has received your message by the response to it. Couples separated by many miles can meet each evening and chat away online for no cost and college students can talk to Mom and Dad without fear of running up a large phone bill with free instant messaging.
If there is any criticism of a free instant messaging participation, it is the artificialness of it all. Devoid of real emotion, many people who stay at home and use this tool as a main form of communication may lose the ability to clearly share their emotions and feelings through verbal means. In kind, many lonely persons may cling to this impersonal form of communication as their only means of human contact. What all this means in a world already losing the personal ability to produce neighborhoods of relational meaning is too early to tell. But the reliance upon a keyboard as a substitute for real human interaction casts a foreboding shadow on the ability of society to gain back the warmth that has certainly been lost in recent years. Admitting weaknesses, personal shortcomings, wrong attitudes, failures and other issues aren't the same when typing on a keyboard as when looking someone straight in the eye. "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another..." (James 5:16a)
However, many businesses are beginning to experiment with using free instant messaging for communication between team members. With many businesses now using the team concept for research, development and marketing, the reality becomes more important for people to communicate with one another within the team environment. As a result, those used to using IM at home are more comfortable using IM at work, often with more regularity than even phone messaging. This is especially true among Gen Y employees. Of course, strict policies on what can be communicated among IM users at work must be developed in order to minimize security breaches. However, when the IM is used only within a business network, security issues may not even be a concern.
In times past, free instant messaging was only available for those on the same IM service provider. In recent years, these providers have made texting much easier for users on different IM services to communicate with one another. Today, most people who use these services have a buddy list, which is comprised of the many people they talk to on a regular basis. A person can check that buddy list to see who is online at the time and begin talking to them if desired. IM is used in dozens of websites where people who have various interests can talk to one another. One of the popular places where IM is used on a regular basis is on websites where singles talk frequently. IM chatting is a popular way of communicating because anonymity can be maintained, providing a source of security.
IM is certainly not a secure way for people to communicate. IM is vulnerable to hackers, at least on some level and is not at all recommended for passing along personal or important information. This form of communicating is strictly for grins, giggles and flirting. When visiting free instant messaging sites, an onlooker is certainly aware of the many emoticons that people use along with their text in order to show some emotion. These emoticons, in the forms of small cartoon characters can certainly send almost instantaneously the feelings behind certain words and phrases.
When a person enters into a chat room where free instant messaging is going on, it can appear to be an alien language being typed on the monitor. IM is a language of shortcuts and acronyms that needs to be learned before jumping in and trying to chat away. For example, I could give you legal advice, but IANAL. I am not a lawyer. And if a group of people didn't want a new chatter coming in and joining the conversation, somee of the participants might say NIMBY. Not in my back yard. And when parents are in the room and a teen cannot talk freely, it's P911.
There are a number of services that will allow a person to download files in order to have free instant messaging capability. Yahoo, AOL, Google, Skype, and dozens more providers will provide downloadable software that will enable a user to begin communicating through text. In many cases, the buddies can be from other servers and providers, but check with the website before assuming you will be able to talk with just anyone. Once logged on, the magic of IM begins, which is so much better than emailing because one can know instantly that a person has received your message by the response to it. Couples separated by many miles can meet each evening and chat away online for no cost and college students can talk to Mom and Dad without fear of running up a large phone bill with free instant messaging.
If there is any criticism of a free instant messaging participation, it is the artificialness of it all. Devoid of real emotion, many people who stay at home and use this tool as a main form of communication may lose the ability to clearly share their emotions and feelings through verbal means. In kind, many lonely persons may cling to this impersonal form of communication as their only means of human contact. What all this means in a world already losing the personal ability to produce neighborhoods of relational meaning is too early to tell. But the reliance upon a keyboard as a substitute for real human interaction casts a foreboding shadow on the ability of society to gain back the warmth that has certainly been lost in recent years. Admitting weaknesses, personal shortcomings, wrong attitudes, failures and other issues aren't the same when typing on a keyboard as when looking someone straight in the eye. "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another..." (James 5:16a)
Free Instant Messaging
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Reviewed by Anonymous
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9:20 PM
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