Is it foolish to post your AIM ID on a blog like this? Will it get you, instead of the occasional howdy from readers, just a bunch of come-see-my-webcam-I’m-down-to-my-PANTIES!!!!! IM spam? I did instant-messaging back when I was on AOL, and while it was interesting at first, ultimately I decided it was just a different form of CB radio, and gave it up.
But when I went to Mac OSX, with its much-improved iChat program, I realized I was wrong. I’m a writer with small-c catholic interests in capital-W Writing, which is to say, I’m interested in how we figure out each form for ourselves — how fiction is different from nonfiction, which is different written letters, which are different from e-mail, which is different from instant messaging, which is different from text messages on your cell phone, and all the rest of it. I like the way IM chats fill a niche between e-mail and phone calls, how you can do it while you’re doing something else. I also like the dog picture that’s my current IM avatar.
Which sounds, I realize, like a bunch of masters-thesis crapola to justify my occasional enjoyment of internet chatting. Nevertheless.
If you’re looking for me online, e-mail and I’ll send it. But right now I’m going for a bike ride.
Dave Reilly said on May 21, 2004 at 12:22 pm
Take your ID off now, Nance! And then change it.
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Nance said on May 21, 2004 at 1:39 pm
Ohhh-kay, I did. But why? Lots of people put their IM ID on their sites. Jon Katz puts it in his damn BOOKS, for pete’s sake.
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Dave Reilly said on May 21, 2004 at 2:20 pm
Fifty-six overlapping windows appearing on your screen the moment you sign on—twenty-four of them saying, “Hi Nance, can you talk?” and the other thirty-two offering variations of what you worried about or asking what you’re wearing.
Katz forgot to ask me for advice when he made his decision.
Btw, what are you wearing?
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