we can haz blog?

lilroto18 (7:58:11 PM): hey girl hey
magpie1052 (7:58:24 PM): well hello
Auto response from lilroto18 (7:58:24 PM): you can be my alphabet and i will be your calculator.
lilroto18(7:58:36 PM): how are you
magpie1052 (7:59:02 PM): alrighty, a bit busy..you?
lilroto18(7:59:40 PM): same i have a ton of homework i still have to do
magpie1052 (8:00:00 PM): are you planning on going to the bball game?
lilroto18 (8:00:17 PM): no, i was going to go to the library i think
magpie1052 (8:00:38 PM): have fun walking in the snow
magpie1052 (8:00:47 PM): i cant believe my stupid car got stuck again
lilroto18 (8:01:32 PM): i know!
lilroto18 (8:01:42 PM): i haven't even tried to get my car out
magpie1052 (8:02:32 PM): ya, i wouldnt if i were you
magpie1052 (8:02:50 PM): ps, we have to make some plans for the steelers game soon
lilroto18 (8:03:20 PM): yea, i want to make some kind of dip or somethink
lilroto18 (8:03:28 PM): something*
lilroto18 (8:03:47 PM): i was thinking vegatarian buffalo dip
magpie1052 (8:03:53 PM): loser, you would
magpie1052 (8:04:33 PM): but that may be good, ill make some non-vegatarian dip hehe
lilroto18 (8:05:01 PM): i tiff wanted to make regular buffalo dip
lilroto18 (8:05:34 PM): sorry, i think tiff wanted to make the dip
magpie1052 (8:05:49 PM): o ok
lilroto18 (8:08:49 PM): so you can get your meat fix
lilroto18 (8:08:50 PM): hah
lilroto18 (8:08:51 PM): a
lilroto18 (8:09:25 PM): but, i gotta get going
lilroto18 (8:09:32 PM): too much work to do!
magpie1052 (8:09:59 PM): oook ya i gotta get to my im bball game
lilroto18 (8:10:31 PM): good luck against those coaches
magpie1052 (8:10:44 PM): thanks!
magpie1052 (8:10:56 PM): see you home soon!
lilroto18 (8:11:03 PM): kk byyyye!!

The idea that I focused on from Always On by Naomi Baron in Chapter 4, was her attempt to define Instant Messaging as either more closely related to the way we speak or the way we write. This speech-versus-writing question becomes difficult to distinguish in messaging on-line because their are components of on-line communication that tend to be more formal, that is closer to the way we write, and also more informal like in the way we speak face-to-face.

As I was IMing my friend, I thought that afterwards it would be interesting to analyze our conversation based on the information from the chapter.I also thought it was important to include the timestamps so that it was clear how much time was in between each answer and to note that the conversation lasted about thirteen minutes long. There were however, long pauses in our conversation, relating back to the idea of multitasking or becoming distracted. This makes the name of this communication medium, instant messaging, to become a bit questionable. How instant are these messages?

As one section of the chapter talked about closings to the conversation I noticed that our closing statements lasted for about two minutes and took seven lines of typing. Like stated in the chapter, saying goodbye in a face-to-face conversation could be similar to this closing. Not only are endings to conversations more similar to speaking than writing, but so are many more aspects of instant messaging such as average turn length per person and chunking utterances into multiple sequential transmissions. However, females tend have more "involved" or "social" discourse rather than "informational". In this talkative manner, females tend to have IM conversations that are more related to writing style. The question really ends up being, is there any clear or correct answer to this speech-versus-writing issue or is it more an individual difference? Quite honestly I hope that the way I communicate online is different from both the way I speak and write.

The truth is, as popular as instant messaging and other means of computer mediated communication, each person use it differently and all aspects of their lives including race, sex, and socioeconomic status play a major role in these differences. Baron helps to explain the differences in communication between males and females through instant messaging in Chapter 4, and Hargittai's article more closely examines the relationship between other cultural characteristics that make up the population of certain computer site users.

One other interesting part of the chapter was finding out that lexical issues (abbreviations, acronyms, contractions, and emoticons, along with spelling mistakes and self-corrections) were hardly as popular in instant messaging conversations than depicted by the media.

Here is a song containing some common media portayals of instant messaging:

For as long as I can remember, everyone's always told me that females are good at English and males are good at Math. Who knew the same qualities would apply to the way language is used in Instant Messaging?

Since the other two blog entries were about Chapter 4, I decided to respond to "Whose Space?", the study on social networking sites. The hometown pride part is just a bonus ☺ (both Northwestern and UIC are located in Chi-town...woo hoo!)

To seem a little more legit, I did feel an interest/connection to the topic. I have used 3 out of the 4 main sites studied (Friendster I’ve heard of but never actually used…and what the heck are Orkut and Beebo?!) and I found myself comparing my own personal experiences to their results.

Note: Personal opinions are first and kind of long, you can skip to the actual study part if you want…I’ll make it bold or something.

Oh, and here's a timeline of when SNS'es came out just so you can see em all (I highlighted the ones in the study). Click to make it bigger.

I got an e-mail requesting me to join this SNS today in my e-mail. Apparently, you can create ANY type of social network and then invite people to join it. Kinda like groups on facebook? Just thought it was interesting and thought people may want to check it out.

http://www.ning.com

Rachel, Maggie, and Leslie