Lifehacker is running a very brief (1 question, three possible answer) survey on Instant Messenger ("Time Sink or Productivity Tool?").
For me, IM is a mixed bag, more or less like email, the Web, the telephone, or any other communication space. It's useful for quick discussions, checking in with someone, or getting a small chunk of useful data I need from someone. But some days I find myself deluged with questions that I end up routing to email for longer responses; I'm also one of those people who just ignore IMs when they come in if I'm busy with something else and haven't set an away message. But I know people who treat IM messages like ringing telephones--as Avital Ronnell said, calling on Heidegger, they're being hailed to answer, and they're incapable of ignoring that request.
I routinely let a telephone ring in my office if I'm in a conversation with someone else, although I've found the unanswered phone extremely disturbing to whomever I'm currently talking to. We also keep our ringer off on the phone at home and only occasionally check our voicemail and caller ID log to see who has called, so maybe I'm just anti-social. Actually, there's no maybe about that.
Posted by johndan at July 14, 2005 01:19 PM | TrackBack