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Online
Communication: Chatting Online Table of Contents Abstract Checking E-mail and sending messages, is not even close to what online communication is today. With new e-mail technologies and the growth in personal computers, interacting with friends and family at a keyboard is just one of many things online communication can provide a user. Online communication has stepped up its game and has moved instant messenger from a toy, to a respectable program for business's and schools. It has ventured into the world of telephone service, via the net, and has also provided users with the ability to interact visually with video e-mails. It took almost a 100 years for communication to be transformed yet again, but this transformation could be greater than the telephone era ever was. When it comes to communication people always want what's convenient, cheaper, and popular, and e-mail and its new genre of technologies make online communication all that and more.
In history there have been new technologies introduced, that have transformed human society by changing the way people communicate with each other. First there was the telephone era invented by Alexander Graham Bell around 1876. Then almost 100 years later the first e-mail was sent by, Ray Tomlinson around 1971, which once again changed the way we communicated with each other. Since e-mail, online chatting has become a part of society. Online chatting has become popular due to the growth of personal computers and the new genre of e-mail technologies. People chat online now for many different reasons whether it is keeping in touch with friends and family, or meeting new friends, new lovers, and enemies. Businesses and schools are also realizing the tangible benefits of chatting online. Chatting online has grown as a popular means of communicating, more so for social and personal reasons rather than educational and business purposes. It is because of its multi-media capabilities, that make chatting on line more convenient, time saving, and relatively inexpensive. Chatting online seems to be becoming just as popular as telephones as a way of getting in touch, keeping in touch, or simply just an alternative way of interacting other than face to face. Due to new advances in technology, chatting online as a way of communicating may surpass the use of telephones and become the more popular choice. The first e-mail message ever sent was by computer engineer, Ray Tomlinson. According to Cambell (1998), "Tomlinson worked for a company called Bolt Beranek and Newman, who were hired by the United States Defense Department in 1968 to build Arpanet, the precursor to the internet. "The most fundamental advance that ARPANET can be credited for is assisting human communication. After ARPANET came the internet. As the internet became available to more people, both privately and through company connections, the email facilities available to users have evolved from the proprietary e-mail systems available within company networks and via host based systems to the current trends of intranets. (A brief History of e-mail, 2002, para.9) An intranet is a network connecting an affiliated set of clients using standard internet protocols, such as "Http." It is an IP-based network of nodes behind a firewall, or behind several firewalls connected by secure, virtual, networks. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was the start of on-line chatting. IRC is a multi-user, multi-channel chat system that started in Finland in 1988 by Jarkko Oikarinen. It gave people all over the world the ability to talk (type) to one another in real time. It moved us beyond e-mail which only aloud us to send whole messages but not receive a response immediately. With e-mail we didn't know when or if the person received the message, and when we would receive a response. With IRC and it's real time capability it aloud us to chat, sending one thought at a time and receiving a response almost immediately afterwards. IRC paved the way for Instant messaging (IM) which is the latest incarnation of on-line chat. Instant messaging and web page chats are now the most commonly used systems for chatting online. One of the most popular ways of chatting on the net these days is Instant Messaging (IM). IM has received a reputation as being a toy for teens and lonely hearts. According to LaGeese (2001), Instant messaging is growing up. Fast typing teenagers are pushing adult America into what many say could be the next great shift in information sharing: real-time communication via the PC." (p.54) IM became popular because of its instantaneous nature, bypassing the annoying lag time inherent in sending and receiving e-mail. (LaGeese, 2001) The most familiar IM is desktop-to desktop instant text messaging. With IM, a lined typed on one PC is seen almost instantly in one corner of the sender's computer screen. IM however is not the first form of real-time messaging. There are other simple forms of real-time messaging that have been around for years, such as IRC. It is today's versions however that allows us to include along with real-time messaging, file attachment, picture icons, and buddy lists. There are four major IM programs, AOL instant messenger (AIM), ICQ ("I seek you" chat), Yahoo!!! messenger, and MSN messenger. AOL instant messenger (AIM) is the most popular IM client on the net, particularly after they bought the Israeli company that developed ICQ in 1998. Of the 59 million people served worldwide by the four messaging services that dominate the market, AOL's two systems served about 56 percent of them. (LaGeese, 2001) AIM may have the fewest features of the four major IM programs, but it has the feature that innovated and pushed IM into the limelight: the buddy list, now widely copied by competitors. Buddy lists are like interactive address books. How it works is the names on the list light up when someone's online and ready to chat. AIM is the easiest of the four programs to learn. ICQ (which AOL still operates separately) is packed with many features, including the ability to archive chats. ICQ has contact lists, which is a play off of AOL's buddy list. ICQ is set up to run in the background while you are connected to the net, giving you the option to chat when ever you want to. The user is able to create their own contact lists containing only the people they want to track. If someone you wish to contact is not on the net, you can send and leave a message for them. Whenever they decide to connect to the net, ICQ will deliver your message to them. With ICQ you can tell it to set you as invisible, away, or tell people that try to contact you that you do not want to be disturbed. ICQ's usernames which are nine-digit numbers, are awkward compared to the other programs. Yahoo Messenger, which rates right up there with ICQ and AOL, works well with Yahoo's other features, such as its e-mail system. Its features resemble AIM's features including voice chat, file transfer, and finding friends and family online through their strong and robust search feature. (Chatting on the net, 2002, para.1) MSN Messenger Service is Microsoft's answer to the popular ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger clients. Microsoft has chosen to take a more streamlined approach to the MSN Messenger. It is basically just a client for exchanging instant messaging with friends and acquaintances and not much more. (Chatting on the net, 2002, para.7) They have recently added essential features like voice chat support and file sharing capabilities, but the latest release version of MSN Messenger still does not offer any of the advanced features found in ICQ, AIM, or Yahoo! Messenger. Searching for your friends is another drawback in the MSN Messenger. You can only search the Hotmail member directory. Due to this drawback MSN Messenger does offer a lot of options as to your whereabouts such as online, offline, busy, be right back, away, out to lunch, and on the phone. Community Chat Another very familiar way to chat is Web page chat. Due to the fact that there are a countless number, you can find web page chat all over the net these days. Web page chat is focused on building online communities for chatters, allowing them to chat with people who may share their same background and or interests. Teens say online chatting is good for meeting people, but not that good for making new friends. (Pew & Internet American Life Project, 2002, para.1) A familiar type of web page chat is, dedicated web page chat. Most have several chat rooms to choose from, but more than likely there are very few chatters present. An example of such a website is City Live. Another example of a more concentrated dedicated web page chat is Black Planet. Black Planet is now serving more than 2.8 million members (as of June 2001). It is a ground breaking online community for the African American people. It enables its members to develop meaningful personal and professional relationships, and stay informed about the world. Web page chat is used more for people to meet strangers and make acquaintances. It is not used much at all to get in contact with friends and family. Web page chat and Instant Messaging have maintained there popular status and continue to grow in numbers every day because of creative innovations in computer technology that allow users to interact in a number of ways. Nowadays most people who are frequent chatters and who are committed to online communication, usually look for opportunities to see pictures of people, hear voices, or see videos. These advances have taken away from the cyberspace idea and the whole idea of being in a dream world. The new technology available now is lowering the risk kids (who make up the majority of online chatters) face when chatting online in today's world. These technologies are taking away from the anonymity in chat rooms. They are also taking away from building new personas which sometimes are created for the worse. (LaGeese, 2001) . With all the features that online users request in a chat program, it seems as if they want to see online chat replace the telephone. Some of the of the technology that are most frequently used by online chatters range from Instant Messenger to web cam. Instant messenger is not the newest technology, but it is one of the first ones that sparked the popularity of online chatting. It is what moved us from a delayed e-mail to real time communication. Some of IM's special features include IMVironments, Emoticons, and typing notification. IMVironments are messaging environments you share with your friends. Emoticons tell your friends things like, you're feeling ill, you want them to be quiet, your fed up, or when you're just clowning around. Typing Notification is for impatient people who get tired of waiting for the response. It allows you to see when your friends are typing a message to you. IM has been utilized mainly by teens thus far. Teens prefer Instant messaging because it allows them to have multiple conversations and also engage in multiple activities at once. (Pew & Internet American Life Project, 2002, para.4) One teen said, "I carry on separate conversations with each person. That way, you can talk about more stuff at once." (Pew & Internet American Life Project, 2002, para.4) With IM being such a success, many Web page chats have tried to introduce an online dating concept. This concept is not so far fetched with the ability to send and receive photos over the net, voice messaging, and finally video e-mails. Although many teens recognize that it may not be the best medium for starting deeper relationships, online dating is still being pushed into the online communication phenomenon. Because of the new technologies that enable us to send photos over the net, voice messaging, and video e-mails, screen names are no longer just an anonymous typist. Though not with strangers, about half of online teens (48%) believe that internet has improved relationships with friends. (Pew & Internet American Life Project, 2002, para.1) Every one may not see instant messaging as a convenient way of communicating, and therefore will only use the phone for talking to friends and family. Having to try to type as fast as your thinking, may be a task that many try to avoid by continuing to make phone calls rather than send an instant message or an e-mail. Also waiting for a response of the person your typing to has been a down fall for instant messenger, even with new features such as typing notification. The simple fact is that many type slower than they talk, which makes for choppy conversation. However, online chatting is still nipping at the heels of telephone conversations with allowing users to have the ability of voice chat and also internet phone calls. Voice chat is more for people who would rather say what they think, rather than type what they think. Many users use voice chat to make their message a little more personal for the receiver. Even though with email messages you can not see the person, voice messages make it a little bit more tangible. And although you can not see face expressions of the sender with a typed email message, voice mail puts the emotion back into messages through voice. Voice messaging has a couple of benefits that the telephone does not have. Thanks to the multi-capability of computers and online chatting, you can add a web cam along with your microphone to create a video email, which is then becomes the ultimate communication device. (Albro, 2002) Albro (2002)shares that, "Instead of spending hundreds on airfares, I send friends a video e-mail so they can hear my voice and see my smiling face. When I feel like chatting I'll do it over the net."(p.99) The benefit that voice message has over telephone calls or messages is it is free other than the initial cost of the software. It is really convenient for those sending messages long distance. Calling long distance can become very costly, and therefore many people ration out there long distance calls. Having to ration out long distance calls may inconvenience the user by not being able to speak their thoughts to whom they want when they want. Voice messaging is not normally used for full fledge conversations but with the right software can be. It is mainly just a more convenient way to send messages via the PC. Internet phone calls on the other hand have caused quite a stir in the communication business. They have been around for years, but just have not caught on. Factors that contributed to the downfall of internet phone calls were poor sound quality, and the fact that both parties had to be online and using the same software. Internet services are finally starting to make there mark with there new generation of services for calling all over the world. As internet phone services improve, the marketplace is starting to boom. (Bass, 2000) According to Bass (2002), "Dataquest, a research firm in San Jose, California, estimates that the telephony market, a $225 million business in 1998, will jump in value to $21 billion by 2003. Nonetheless, traditional phone companies probably won't start losing customers for quite some time." (p.184) Internet phone call have come along way in only three years. Internet phone services let you communicate in a couple of ways. You can now chat PC-to-PC or PC to telephone. You can now call someone who does not own a PC from your PC, which is a remarkable advance in Internet phone calls. As long as internet phone services continue to improve upon sound quality and maintain there free status, regular telephone services will never be able to compete. Most products available for internet phone calls allow free calls within the United States. All PC-to-PC products can make free international calls. According to Bass (2002), "to date there are only three products that provide free PC- to- telephone calls: Hot Telephone.com, to over 30 countries worldwide; Dialpad, to Korea; and MediaRing to China." (p.185) It was almost a 100 years after the telephone that another great advance in technology changed the way we communicated with one another in a phenomenal way. The internet, e-mail, and online chat has changed the way millions are communicating today. And although kids, the largest group of people who use Instant messaging and online chat, say they prefer telephone over IM, this does not mean those opinions will stay this way. (Pew & Internet American Life Project, 2002, para.2) Many will easily choose talking on a telephone over typing any day, just for the simple fact that it saves time. However online chatting is more than just IM and web page chat; it is now voice chat, video chat, and a telephone. When we could only e-mail to one another it was neither more convenient, nor more interactive than telephone. When people started instant messaging others, they were able to interact with more people at once. Because of IM, e-mail became more convenient for online chatters because it was saving money on long distant phone calls. When e-mail could be sent as a video chat, the potential for online chat was becoming more visible. Now online chatting is more convenient and definately more interactive than telephone with internet phone services. Online chat can now offer people many things the same as a telephone, but a telephone can hardly offer any of the same benefits online chatting provides. Many options are available for online chatters now, which is why schools and business's are trying to catch on. E-mail is no longer just a toy, it is the future for all communication. Phones will still be used in the future but not nearly as much as they are being used now, if the popularity of online chatting keeps rising. References Albro,
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