Will IM ever replace e-mail? - Page 2

Blarg · #11 08-17-2007, 12:22 PM

The intrusive presence of programs in general on your computer these days -- they try to disable other programs on the sly, conflict with them, eat up your memory, often will pop up at you with idiotic raving about how great their new features are, or try to get you to buy "expanded and improved" versions of themselves, or make themselves impossible to uninstall, or put icons for themselves inappropriately in Microsoft Office, or your browser, windows explorer, etc -- makes me want to use only those programs strictly necessary.

The greed of other programs and their ability to interfere makes them ridiculous.

gusmahler · #12 08-17-2007, 12:35 PM

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Texting on a phone seems like the stupidest thing ever.

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I more or less agree.

[/ QUOTE ]Supposedly, it's popular for a couple reasons: 1) in some countries (not the US), it is markedly cheaper to send an SMS than to make a phone call; 2) it's less obtrusive (e.g., you can SMS a classmate during class easier than calling them.) Don't think either is really a reason for SMS to catch on in a business environment.

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IM is slightly better, but I see no real reason for it. Must be a generational thing, in that I don't have the time to waste that texting and IM demands.

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IM is great because it has a quick turn around time without being completely intrusive. If I'm sitting at my desk and someone has a question for me that they want to know the answer to quickly they can IM me. But I get to choose exactly when I respond, so it doesn't break me out of whatever I'm working on as completely as say a phone call. Plus I can carry on an IM conversation while continuing other work, while a phone call gets my completely concentration.

[/ QUOTE ]But you can say the same thing for email.

katyseagull · #13 08-17-2007, 01:41 PM

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Seeing someone's visual scrapbook, or hanging around on a site full of them, does nothing for me.

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Yeah I'm with you Blarg. Visual scrapbook is a good description. It does nothing for me either. The whole thing seems silly. I might click on someone's myspace page out of sheer curiosity, like Ohhh...so THAT's what Censored looks like. But other than that I can't get into the idea of a public scrapbook.

We can use IM at my work but almost no one chooses to. Most of the people here prefer to use email or just shout over the cubicles [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img].

Sometimes I like talking to people in real time but usually it's very shallow stuff like "what's for lunch?"...or..."HEY!! I'm going crazy."...or..."You around? I have an excel question." Other than that, and sitting around gossiping, I don't see the advantage.

I used messaging a little bit when I first became a mod in the lounge. For some reason I felt this urgency to talk to people like RIGHT NOW. Thank god that urgency passed huh Wookie? (I think he thought I was nuts.)

One thing about IM, you do sort of get a different impression of your coworkers.

gusmahler · #14 08-17-2007, 02:14 PM

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Seeing someone's visual scrapbook, or hanging around on a site full of them, does nothing for me.

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Yeah I'm with you Blarg. Visual scrapbook is a good description. It does nothing for me either. The whole thing seems silly. I might click on someone's myspace page out of sheer curiosity, like Ohhh...so THAT's what Censored looks like. But other than that I can't get into the idea of a public scrapbook.

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I don't get Myspace either. But apparently, they have an email/messaging system. So when I say that teenagers/college students use myspace instead of email, they use the messaging features.

Blarg · #15 08-17-2007, 02:58 PM

Myspace/Facebook type deals are very dangerous professionally too. I wouldn't be caught dead being anything remotely like myself on them, because employers look this kind of stuff up all the time these days.

I don't see any value in having a "clean enough to run for Pope or President" version up.

jjshabado · #16 08-17-2007, 07:37 PM

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IM is great because it has a quick turn around time without being completely intrusive. If I'm sitting at my desk and someone has a question for me that they want to know the answer to quickly they can IM me. But I get to choose exactly when I respond, so it doesn't break me out of whatever I'm working on as completely as say a phone call. Plus I can carry on an IM conversation while continuing other work, while a phone call gets my completely concentration.

[/ QUOTE ]But you can say the same thing for email.

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Not really, it doesn't have the quick turn around. It could, but we don't expect our emails to be responded to in the next 15-20 minutes. Usually a couple of hours is standard, and often up to a day or two.

Its nice to have a medium that you can expect to be answered in a short period of time, but isn't completely obnoxious. There's lots of things that can be answered by a quick question over IM that would take too long over email to get a response.

jjshabado · #17 08-17-2007, 07:38 PM

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We can use IM at my work but almost no one chooses to. Most of the people here prefer to use email or just shout over the cubicles [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img].

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We're spread over two floors, which is also a common use of IM. "You there?" can save you a wasted 5 minutes.

Rootabager · #18 08-18-2007, 05:29 AM

texting is good in bars when you cant hear someone on the other line. If you lose your friends etc.

TheCroShow · #19 08-19-2007, 01:03 PM

the answer is no, IM will never replace e-mails.

it's quite possible that IM/Facebook/MSN will become more popular than e-mails but e-mails will always play an important role in communication.

i'm just transitioning from a Helpdesk role to a Quality Control role, but when I was on Helpdesk we combined e-mails and IMs. E-mails were great for storing troubleshooting steps as found in email. IMs were great for quick communication, "Hey man, I have so and so on the phone, can you take the call?"

P.S. Texting is great, I hate talking on the phone. Here's a typical texting convo for me.

Buddy: what's up man? doin anything today?
Me: playin wii, you down?
Buddy: yeah what time?
Me: anytime, it's my day off today.
buddy: coo, be there in an hour

And that's that. It takes a couple of minutes max and sometimes it saves me money, I don't have to talk on the phone during my anytime minutes.

pryor15 · #20 08-19-2007, 01:48 PM

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Myspace/Facebook type deals are very dangerous professionally too. I wouldn't be caught dead being anything remotely like myself on them, because employers look this kind of stuff up all the time these days.

I don't see any value in having a "clean enough to run for Pope or President" version up.

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myspace is pretty essential for someone like me who needs it for networking purposes