Initial thoughts on IM

My first exposure to IM was through my children.  All three have been using it for years.  My son, now a sophomore in college was the first one in the house to start using it.  I'm guessing he started about 4-5 years ago.  My second child (now 16) started IMing when she was in 8th grade.  I was definitely an over-protective parent.  I did not understand much about it and the anonymity of it was a bit frightening.  I remember many girls her age getting into trouble on it, as it seemed as though they would be much meaner through cyberspace than they would be in person or even on the phone.  My youngest, who is now in 8th grade has (of course) been using IM for a couple of years.  I noticed that my older two have moved from IM to Facebook, now my youngest wants one of those (again... of course).   Personally, I signed up for IM during the summer when we first started our program at UCONN and I really enjoy using it.  I have especially enjoyed being able to chat with a group.  I think it is a great tool for collaboration.  

first thoughts

When I'Ming was first introduced to me I found I used it often - talking to my sister, niece, nephews, brother,old friends etc. It was a great way to touch base in real time and catch up on events in everyone's life. It was new and we were enthused about it. Now, however, life has gotten in the way and schedules have changed, so we resort to email, facebook, my space, texting more often than i'ming. My sister continuously complains about the lack of communication with her children and having to rely on checking their my space page and facebook to find out what is going on with them, while they feel that they are consistently in touch with their mom. They don't understand her frustration because they are so comfortable with email and texting as a way to communicate. I find that we are missing that personal connection we had by communicating through the telephone or in person. I see a table full of people at a restaurant and half of them have their heads down texting ( sometimes to the person sitting next to them). When I was growing up I could set the clock by the telephone calls from my grandmother to us to check in. We each stood in line to talk to her and catch her up with what was going on. I could hear her laughter and not have to read LOL in an instant message. I miss that Sunday night phone call.

Here's a video that is humorous, but I have actually seen teens communicating like this when they don't want others in the room to know what they are talking about,

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=instant+messaging&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#

I hope that this works.

This is all new to me

Ok, this is the first time I've participated in a group blog. So I am just testing it out and will comment on the reading in my next post. I am learning so much from this experience and can see the benefits in my classroom.

Barb,

You have to accept the invitation to be an author. I can see where Lori has accepted, but you and Mary have not. Did you get a gmail e-mail about the invitation? This may allow you to post instead of just adding comments, although I see Lori has just added comments and not posts. When I log in I get a tabl that says either add posts or new posts.