Informalities...

Being informal has been slowly infused into our generation slowly and slowly... first it was AIM/MSN/YIM/ICQ/whatever other instant messaging program... then it was cell phone texting... then it was wall to wall posts on facebook... and of course along with that came facebook CHAT... Everyone has their own views on such types of communication... it's either you love it or hate it... and that's just life.

With these various ways of informal communication comes the pros and cons of each... the pros being what makes it more convenient for you... and the cons being the frustration that each brings into our lives...

AIM is where it all started... and dont get me wrong i still use aim nowadays but definitely not as often as i did say 3-5 years ago.... the possible pros of aim/any instant messanger is that you talk to multiple people at once about various different things... duh right? it also shows your availability to others on aim... that you're available to talk to instead of it being an unknown thing all the time. Also you can do other things... like hw and still talk to people at the sametime! it's crazy... and distracting at times... but nice to have someone to talk to here and there when you wanna take a break.... now the cons of aim are that it's informal (duh) to put it plainly... but with the ability to be so distracted on aim with hw or talking to multiple people brings up the issue that whoever is talking isn't truly fully into the conversation... and isn't that what conversation is all about? having 1 on 1 interaction with someone should be significant... even if it's talking about something ridiculous or small talk... my experience with aim has been all over the place... from really short conversations with people i dont wanna talk to (another con) to long drawn out conversations with my friends. and i do like the flexibility of it all... as informal as it is... sometimes it's just what i need... where i can take my time to respond to certain things or get other things done and still catchup with a friend. One final frustration about aim could be delayed responses when you really need/want a fast paced conversation to happen on aim... cause come on... they're fun! or you might just need to know something asap... and the person on the other end doesn't realize this. I'm sure there are little things here and there about instant messaging that we love and hate... too many to name!

Then there's texting... a very controversial way of communication... almost anything can happen via texting... it's direct to a person... but not at the sametime... sometimes they dont have their cellphone on them... and sometimes they see the text and decide not to respond... but you as the texter... never know! everyone's different when it comes to texting as well... and granted i know not everyone has unlimited texting... but when it comes down to it almost everyone has a significant texting plan... (prolly around 80%) personally i'm an avid texter... when the times calls for it that is... i can dish out full length messages very quickly and thus it is slightly efficient way of communication for me... to get a message out to someone and then be on my way! my family knows that texting is huge... so we have a family plan that's unlimited texting with 700 shared minutes... and then of course unlimited night and weekends... this works out perfectly! the shared 700 minutes are simple for those out of Verizon network people that we call occasionally since the IN network is free always... anyways texting is a very convenient way of communication for the informal type that is needed sometimes... of course it's always more convenient to just call someone and dish about 5 full text messages in like 20 seconds... lol... it's annoying sometimes that it could just be that... but i guess the thing around text messaging is is that it's over a period of time so yes there's more time to think of small responses and then of course if you're doing something important you can respond here and there... or just for texting during class/when you're bored... either way texting has become a part of our lives that just works... and as much as i hate having that mystery of whether or not someone is going to respond... i still use it... I will admit i dont respond to texts sometimes... but it's usually not on purpose and will usually follow up with the person if i sorta just stop a "conversation" going on via texting... and so i guess it's hypocritical to find it annoying that sometimes people dont respond back to me!... oh well... texting... it's just life.

Now facebook wall to walls are probably the worst... it's like... not even close to direct as a text... and it takes hours on end to get a message to someone (for them to actually read)... though i guess that's one of the pros of facebook... to be really really indirect and informal about communication... then i suppose facebook chat is their attempt to eliminate wall to wall conversations... like posting wall to wall every minute... like what's the point? to show the world you can have a conversation on facebook that everyone can read? ehh something like that haha... so basically facebook is like emailing... messaging over time since you dont have "time" to actually talk to a person face to face (distance) or on the phone (both people are on different time schedules)

In conclusion, these few informalities of our lives come natural to us, some more than others granted, but in the end all these ways of "communication" are used for whatever means... and as sad as it is -it's accepted!

I know i said i'd update you on my semester and stuff... but uhh last night i decided to write about this and continued/finished today.

I'll update on the other stuff soon!

Thanks for reading,

DYung