What do cows, telephones and cash registers have in common? The answer might not be obvious to our grandparents, but college students know these make the charming sounds that announce someone signing on to AOL Instant Messenger.
"Instant Messenger is a free service provided by American Online," AOL Product Information Consultant Jane Connely said. "It is like chatting with your buddy and it helps you in communicating with long-distance friends."
University students use the service to keep in touch with high school friends and to procrastinate by chatting with college friends -- even those who live within walking distance. Generally speaking, few activities take precedence over responding to a blinking blue button on the computer desktop.
In the world of IM, few people are known by their real names. When third-year College student Matt Reynolds messages a friend, he loses the name his parents gave him and transforms into the suave "milesofstyle."
Reynolds said that the song "Frontwards" by Pavement inspired the selection of his screen name the summer before he came to college. "I've got style, miles and miles, so much style it's wasted," Reynolds repeated the song lyrics.
While Reynolds has his own screen name, he would communicate from friends' screen names during his first year at U.Va. Reynolds chuckled as he remembered the pranks he would play on his friends. Using passwords accidentally saved on his computer, Reynolds would sign on and pretend he was someone else. One time he messaged 'booya' to everyone on his friend's buddy list and left an embarrassing away message.
While first-year College student Fegan Redmond admits to using Instant Messenger as a haven for gossip, she does not play witty tricks on her friends. She is comfortable with simply being "feered," which is both her dad's nickname for her and a creative combination of her first and last names.
Redmond established herself as "feered" in the cyber world four years ago and has managed to accumulate 130 people on her buddy list. Reynolds has 135 people, all under one folder named Buddies. He admits, however, that half of them are people he does not talk to or screen names he does not recognize.
Although few people communicate with everyone on their buddy lists, Instant Messenger still serves as a serious distraction.
"IM does not affect my grades, but it is a distraction from real human contact," Reynolds said as he turned to two open screens to respond to friends' messages. Redmond also said that she will talk on IM to her boyfriend even though he lives in her dorm.
In addition to being a form of communication, IM also can become a compulsion. "I am addicted to the damn thing," Reynolds said. "That's why I brought my typewriter back to school with me, so I don't have to look at IM when I am trying to write a paper." A Smith-Corona typewriter from the 1980's rested on the edge of his desk. Reynolds did not use a computer at home before college, so reverting to a typewriter once in a while is something familiar, he said.
Redmond agrees that IM is a distraction from schoolwork. "I will be sitting doing my homework and then wonder if anyone has changed their away message, and then I'll start checking away messages," she said. "If I ever want to get some serious studying done, I have to close my buddy list window."
Another time-consuming aspect of IM is profiles. "Every time I come into my room and I have nothing to do, I check profiles and respond to away messages," Reynolds said.
Redmond shares Reynolds' habit of checking profiles. "I read away messages, and I like it when people put pictures or quizzes up such as 'what kind of drink are you?'" Redmond said. She remembers being a gin and tonic, which characterized her as sophisticated and fun.
Many users spend time designing their profiles to include cell phone numbers, quotes and messages printed in colorful, creative fonts. Redmond said she does not have a profile but enjoys messaging in blue, Book Antiqua font. Reynolds, while indifferent toward fonts, is annoyed when people use colors for the text that are too similar to the background color.
While profiles are useful for friends, they also provide information to anyone who knows a user's buddy name.
"IM encourages stalker behavior on the parts of men and women," Reynolds said. When Reynolds was home on break, an old high school friend commented on Reynolds' "Crab Ball" profile link before even saying hello. "I didn't even know he had my screen name," Reynolds said.
Even though IM is a distraction, Reynolds said that it takes the edge off of talking to new people. "It is easier because there are no awkward pauses," Redmond said. "It is also nice to end the conversation on IM but you don't really have to wait for them to respond."
Planning what to say before IMing someone is comforting, but can get out of hand. Reynolds recalls seeing several girls huddled around a computer screen planning each word that was being said in a message.
Reynolds tries not to say things he wouldn't say in person, but admits that he does. He also tries not to get angry on IM since emotions are difficult to convey through a screen. "It is a corky way of talking to people because you can't hear tone or see facial expression, and smiley faces don't quite do the job," Reynolds said.
Redmond agreed. "It is really hard to tell when people are being sarcastic online," she said.
Reynolds also studies linguistics and believes that the way people speak on IM is changing our language. He said that it is a snappy, quick way of communicating. People are beginning to use abbreviations in everyday language that were once reserved for IM. Some examples include "lol," "aight" and "omg."
While IM is a part of the social life at school, Redmond and Reynolds agree they do not need to be on IM at home. "IM is part of being at school, and at home, I am never on the computer," Reynolds said. "[Not signing on IM] is a part of being on break."
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