Thing 11 -- Instant Messaging

I've been IMing since before IMing was invented! Is that really possible? Maybe not, but let me explain anyway.

When I was a child, my father was a "sysop" for a BBS long before the Internet became common place. I learned to chat in real time back then with people who visited my dad's BBS. Then, when I went off to college, I would chat with a friend of mine from high school through the Unix based system at my University. Now instant messaging has become more user friendly and has a nicer interface. I don't have much need for it anymore, but I still occasionally find myself chatting with old friends who pop up.

I have seen many useful applications in the business/customer service world, and I've even used it with a reference librarian before. I don't think it will go away anytime soon, and I'm sure people will continue to find ways to use IMing to their advantage.

I found the link to IM lingo to be quite interesting. I had made up my own abbreviations way back in the day when I first started chatting with people. I used "somth" for something, "ppl" for people, and "L8R" among others. Some of those made it onto the list. I have also been using TTFN for years, since it originated with Tigger on Winnie the Pooh. Glad to see that classic children's entertainment has found it's way into the high tech world. :-)