When that cute guy you met at a party asks you for your screenname instead of your phone number, you know you're in trouble. While "LOL," "TTYL," and "BRB" have not been officially added to the English language, anyone with access to a computer knows what they mean. America Online's Instant Messenger (AIM) feature is all the rage these days, especially on college campuses.
AIM (and the similar ICQ) are free, and offer students the "chat" component of America Online without the e-mail feature. Members pick a "screenname" and can talk to friends or leave "away messages" when they are away from their computer. While ICQ is popular among the international and West Coast crowd, the majority of students at Tufts have AIM screennames.
"It's my downfall," freshman Kathryn Peters said of Instant Messenger. For incoming freshmen, downloading some type of online "messenger" system is essential.
"I downloaded it the first day [it was available]," freshman Lauren Gesserman said.
AIM was not always as popular as it is now. Senior Latrice Goosby was inspired to create a screenname by her freshman roommate, an international student. Goosby didn't know of any other students' using the feature at the time.
Goosby and other students say they use Instant Messenger primarily to communicate with friends at other college campuses. IM has allowed her to keep in touch with students she met abroad, since it's much easier and cheaper than a visit or long-distance phone call.
"Without IM I probably wouldn't talk to a lot of my friends from high school," sophomore Tyson Lynch said. He says that IM away messages and personal profiles allow him to keep up with friends he doesn't see every day.
However, many underclassmen admit to the ultimate in laziness: chatting online with Tufts neighbors and friends in lieu of phone calls or personal visits.
"I'm on it all the time except for when my Internet connection is broken," freshman Kate Kleene said.
Senior Jessica Cohen says she mostly talks online to the people she sees every day, although she says she still prefers to use the phone.
Sophomore Gati Dharani says she thinks that because of the heavy reliance on IM, students' social skills may be deteriorating.
"People need to have face to face interactions with people to work on their social skills. IM does not allow for that," Dharani said.
Sophomore Tenley Oldak thinks that IM changes the way people talk to each other. Ideas are not put into full sentences and IM lingo - abbreviations for "laugh out loud," "talk to you later," and "be right back" are often employed instead.
Some IM users think that IM does improve communication with other students. Sophomore Victoria Tran says that the impersonal nature of AIM emboldens students to be more blunt than they would be in person.
AIM's easy access and free subscription can mean online addiction for some students. Goosby admits that IM is so addictive - she gave it up for Lent. Oldak says she is on IM all the time and only turns it off when she goes to sleep. Senior Larry Baum says he relies on IM all the time to make plans to meet his friends or to procrastinate to avoid work.
Goosby points out that IM is more distracting than e-mail because it can be left on all the time. "After you write your e-mails there's nothing to do," Goosby said. "You can have IM on when you are writing a paper on your computer and it's very tempting."
Some students feel that the influence of IM is spreading to the younger generation in middle and high schools.
"I feel like younger kids are much more savvy with IM," Dharani said. "My sister started using it when she was 14. I did not start until I was in 12th grade. She knows how to do much more with it than I do."
"My brother has been using IM on AOL at home since he was in seventh grade," senior Jessica Cohen said.
Lynch says some people develop curiously different personalities on IM than they have in person.
"On IM some of my friends are funny and I wonder where that comes from," Lynch said.
