Keeping in Touch

How many of you have an Instant Messager screen name? No, don’t raise your hand. You’re reading a newspaper and I can’t see you. I’m willing to bet most of the campus would recognize that familiar little ‘ding’ that means someone wants to distract you from whatever you happen to be doing online. It’s free, and the best way I’ve found to keep in touch with my family and friends away from school. And besides, it’s free.

Supposedly there’s a new version out that lets you actually talk through your computers. I haven’t tried it yet because I can just imagine how disastrous it would be on my academic career. I know I’ve been on IM too long, though, when I hear that ‘ding’ in random places, like the Union, or in class. That’s when I know I’ve got to find an alternate way to talk to them for a while.

There’s always the old stand-by of mail, and we all know how I enjoy the U.S. Postal Service and their bags of postmarked joy. And if you get creative though, you can even spice up mail. Once I sent a friend of mine a letter in an airline vomit bag (unused, of course. What were you thinking?) I can only imagine the looks on the faces of the people who delivered it.

Then, of course, there’s the phone. Expensive, yes, unless you have relatives who express their love for you on the holidays in the form of phone cards. I don’t think I’ve had a phone bill yet this year thanks to them. Only problem is that annoying recorded voice warning you that you’re about to be cut off. “You have one minute remaining. Please say good-bye now, and then speak in short, 3-word sentences in hopes that you will not be [click].”

E-mail is great, as long as it isn’t in the form of a lame chain letter. Nothing says “I randomly clicked your name in my address book so you could get this piece of impersonal garbage” like a chain letter. I mean, what.

It’s not hard to keep in touch with your family and friends while at school. It’s simply a matter of – wait… I think I just heard and IM ding… somewhere… I’ll finish that thought next week. The phantom IM-er is back and wants to talk to me!