As a advid user of instant messanger programs such as ICQ and MSN Messanger, I found the follow article of interest : Instant Messaging . This article basically states the impact instant messaging programs have on communication, and the pro and cons of instant messaging in the commerce world.

Lets talk about the pros of instant messaging first, as seen through my personal experience. One of the things that I enjoyed about instant messaging is that it allowed me to communicate with many classmates of mine that I simply did not have an oppurtunity to communicate with at school either due to different social groups or either person being shy. Instant messaging, ICQ in particular allowed me to develop deeper relations with people that I already communicate with on a regular basis on a telephone or in person as well as people that I seldom communicate with or not communicate at all. By being able to communicate with people that I seldom communicate with at school or at work, I began to develop friendships online with them which in turn lead to a beginning of a friendship in person.

Other advantages that I found in instant messaging included the ability to conduct online transactions (e-commerce) with much more ease as I now have the ability to communicate with people around the world instantly, with out the hassles of long distance chargers, to discuss about our business purchases. This ability made transactions with much ease and time efficiency. The example I mentioned is also an advantage of instant messaging in the commerce world as well, but of course it is done in a more massive scale of trades and transactions compared to my puny little ebay transactions. Many business save vasts amounts of money via instant messanging since it cuts costs of long distance communications through the telephone.

The ability to work on group projects and exchanging computer files is much more efficient and meeting to work on a project with classmates late at night no longer seems to be a problem because we can meet online rather than in person to work on our projects. The disadvantages of working as a group online is that conversations seems to be impersonal for it is only text that we are communicating with. We are lacking face to face conversations, sarcastic remarks can be mistaken as insults or worst yet, compliments can be mistake as sarcasm since each online user can not read the body language and listen to the tone of voice in which the conversation was conducted in. Although online users have smilies to accomadate with the body language that instant messaging lacks, it is not the same. There are just somethings that you can and cannot do in a group online and then there are just some things that can only be done in more efficient means in face to face interactions but face to face interactions has its drawbacks as well. The mentioned problems of impersonal conversations on instant messaging programs not only apply to working on group projects but also in just normal communciations on the internet.

There are a few risk of instant messaging to keep in mind however. Since online file sharing is easier, the risk of being infected by a computer virus is now greater as well. Another thing to be concerned about, whether you use instant messaging as a business tool or a personal communications tool, the risks of being hacked into has now increased as well. The fact that you get to communicate with many strangers and people you do not usually talk to in real life, instant messanging allows decievers and liars to take advantage of the internet atmosphere to lie about themselves and who they are. You may befriend a person who you think you might know online, but in reality he or she is someone completely different.

All in all, I still find that the advantages of instant messaging to be quite helpful in life, although you must protect yourself to ensure your own safety while using instant messanger programs. Sending computer files has never been easier on the internet, working on a project with classmates no longer require you to juggle your schedules so you can meet together all the time (there are still some things you must do in person), e-commerce transactions no longer require email which is a send and wait for reply thing, which is anything but instant or long distance phone calls which is anything but economical.