Instant messaging

This lesson was interesting since I'm an IM noob. Yes, that's right! Until this assignment I had managed to avoid IM in both my personal and professional lives. I was nervous to try it, because even though I can usually type pretty fast, I like to think about what I write and, as a former copy editor, I'm embarrassed if I make typos. Fortunately, though, my IM partner was patient. We exchanged pleasantries about previous IM use for reference work, and he has also used it when he's on vacation in exotic places. We tried adding another person to our IM session for a group chat but found that we had to log in again after the invitation so that we were all included. I was pleasantly surprised that at least this IM experience wasn't so bad. I appreciate the way the Google program explains that a person is typing so you can see evidence of an attempted quick reply. I signed up for Meebo too, but I haven't used it yet. I think it would be challenging to do IM with teens who use it all the time, but it's great that we have another way to offer service to our customers. I don't think I'll use IM much IRL, but it's nice to know that I've had a chance to work with an interesting tool. TTFN.