How Chat and Instant Messaging Have Affected Communication

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When you connect to the Internet, chances are you will most likely spend that time in some sort of communication, and probably more than one method. Whether it's reading and ad, sending an email, even searching for a product to buy online, there will some sort of communicating involved. Needless to say, the Internet has had a very large impact on society, especially in the world of communication. The demand for information and communication has grown, the volume of communication has increased and decreased in some ways, and the nature of communication as a whole has changed to accommodate Internet communication methods.

Let's look at one area in particular that has become a popular form of interpersonal communication over the Internet-chat and instant messaging.

Chat, or chatting, on the Internet is a way to type informal conversations within a group of people. Websites will host a "chatroom" on their site where anyone who wishes to participate can enter and read or add to the conversation. Some sites have dozens of chatrooms with different topic themes so you can find one that interests you. Each person can type their responses then submit them to the flow of entries from what everyone else is saying. You can scroll up or down to see what has been said earlier.

Chat rooms typically move fast and sometimes don't make a lot of sense when too many people are trying to talk at once. Some people who type slower may respond to a comment after 20 other entries have been added, so the conversation often gets jumbled. At the same time, if the chatroom has a small group of people all interested in the same topic, interesting conversation can be had, brainstorming is possible, and ideas can be fleshed out.

Since chat rooms are available to anyone with an Internet connection, they were a way for people to talk to anyone around the world. Chat rooms had an aspect of anonymity that appeals to many people. Whether it was the ability to say what you pleased without anyone finding out who you are, or just the ability to make yourself whoever you wanted to appear to be to others. Since there is a hardly any way to prove who you really are (and giving away personal information to strangers over the Internet is discouraged), chatrooms are a place to talk to strangers and say what you wish with no regard to getting to know them. In a way, chatrooms have opened a door for more open, but less personal communication.

The environment also allowed for an informal means of communication. In the speed of keeping up with the conversation, entries are broken into short sentences, grammar and punctuation is overlooked, and politically-correctness and tact are sometimes abandoned due to the lack of identification and accountability.

Instant messaging is much like chat, but between only two people. Usually instant messaging is contained within an installed program on the user's computer. You set up an account with a username or screen name, then enter the screen names of friends so you can be notified when they are currently running the program on their computer, or "signed-in". When you see that a friend on your list of screen names is signed in, you click on the screen name and can start an instant message conversation with that person.

Since instant messaging is usually between people that already know each other, instant messaging is less anonymous, but the informality is often still there. Many times, grammar, punctuation, and spelling is less of a priority than quickly typing the message. Many shortcuts are also used that are sometimes even used in face-to-face conversations. Some of the typical acronyms are lol "laughing out loud", ttyl "talk to you later" and using numbers in place of letters, like h8 "hate" and 2 "to" or "too."

Communication itself has changed its definition to include a variety of media over the years. The informality and anonymity of the Internet are two of the strongest influences on modern communication.
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