“Confessions of an Instant Messenger”
Please read this essay in addition to the others listed on your course schedule. Because I had originally hoped to use this essay for the diagnostic, I would like to hear what you have to say about the topic raised by Boyland. Do you believe today’s society is less equipped with social skills because of the amount of time we spend behind a computer?
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I don’t think things like instant messaging have been around long enough to make society’s social skills less equipped, per se…but it could definitely be going in that direction. You have to consider society’s willingness to not interact with itself, though.
(This comment was posted by Katie under Paragraph Requirements. I copied it here so that it would be viewed with the others.)
“Confessions of an Instant Messenger” is completely right. Teenagers and kids spend way too much time talking to each other online. They never go anywhere. They especially talk online when they shouldn’t, like after they are supposed to be in bed. When it comes down to an interview and resume for them to get a job, they won’t know how to communicate their ideas in the correct way, and they will not be able to relate to people.
This interpretation of instant messaging is right on the dot. In a society today where instant messaging has become the newest form of commmunication, we have become very lazy, and we don’t bother to pick up a phone anymore to say hello to people. Instead we will just double click on our friends name in the messenger box and say hello. I know this to be true because I am an instant messenger addict. Being an addict to the IM world could probably be fit into the same category as being addicted to drugs, however there is no bodily harm involved, just harm to the brain, and to social skills.
I do not believe “Confessions of an Instant Messenger” portrays a realistic view of the ever growing technology which IM or other sources of communication provide. IM provides convenience, expediency, and just another way for us to communicate. IM wasn’t meant to replace verbal communication, but it is to provide the means for another source of communication. I am sure that there is money to be made by selling the idea of internet friendship so to speak, but it seems the author is trying to convince us that IM is only used for nonsense and prying into one and others lives. Maybe his point is slightly over exaggerated, but I can see how punching your keyboard and surfing the net can take up valuable time.