Wednesday, October 01, 2003

I read the blurb below and was struck by the following idea.  Teens tend to be insecure in their relationships and so have an innate need to stay in contact with each other to get continuous feedback and make continuous commentary. My wife was recently working with a company that used IM constantly.  Once she was away with the standard message - "I'll be back in a bit"  And she got an email asking where she goes when her IM away message is turned on.  These guys were unbelievably untrusting.  She was doing personal stuff - like making dinner, or running errands...  They feared that she was selling them out behind thier backs! I suggest that this always available state of being is an adolescent one of insecurity.  Granted their can be moments of great value in quickly getting answers - perhaps while on the phone with a customer, but beyond that it descends into arranging lunch, and gossip. Challenge me anyone!?!? ======================= "IMing Means Never Having to Say You're Not There". "According to a recent America Online (AOL) Teen-Wired survey, 70 percent of teens use the Internet for instant messaging, real-time message exchange, or chat. The number jumps to 83 percent for older teens, ages eighteen to nineteen - 56 percent of them prefer the Internet to the telephone. According to Sheila Tran, a spokesperson for AOL, 'Analysts predict that by 2005, instant messaging will surpass e-mail as the primary way of communicating online.' Teens have led the way. Tran notes that 'from the start, teens had more conversations going at once, used their Buddy Lists more, and were creating a whole new language.' AOL's IM service 'virtually lights up after school. Teens love IM because it allows them to talk to all their friends at once; they even call their friends to say 'go online....' My high school students, my college son and daughter, and their friends eagerly shared with me the significance of IMing in their lives. Despite privacy and time management issues, it is a critical lifeline, the form of communication they can't live without.... Unlike high school students, my daughter's college friends leave their computers logged on at all times.... [Deborah] Tannen notes that unlike other formats, IMs 'maintain an open state of communication, assuming you are always there. If you're not, you'll have an away message posted. Kids are in a state of communication even when they are not talking.' " [VOYA, October 2003, p.291] Does your library understand the growing significance of instant messaging and real-time chat? Are you prepared to provide services to these kids? [The Shifted Librarian] 6:37:06 PM     I went to a presnetation at the Harvard B-School on power networking.  It was given by a short, non-charasmatic operations guy.  Not a marketing type!  Not a handsome and engaging person.  He did have some force of character, but I would not have expected him to be the speaker at a Power Networking session. There was not much new in what he had to say... But he was a living example of how someone without the gold-plated resume, and without natural extroverted tendencies used intensional (my sic) networking to promote himself and gain employment, friends and contacts that have been of great value to him over the years. In short, it was a good, back to the basics, kick in the pants - time to follow suit! 6:03:58 PM

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