15 responses to “I hate instant messenger”

1. Wow dude. I hate how you just totally scooped my next post. I swear I’ve been thinking the same thing. The more and more I get involved with IM, the less and less I want to be less involved with it.

   I still might write that post.

2. That’s why I always sign in as invisible. Always being there but never being seen until I want to. Then again, I’ve learnt not to respond immediately to people I don’t want to respond to. IM gives me a real time choice. One I’m more than willing to make on my own sweet time.

3. I think the biggest gripe I have against IM is that it adds to my lack of focus. I’m busy enough as it is, but to have to deal with another thing it just throws it over the top.

4. It’s like asking for a distraction.

5. I never use IM… in any form, it simply cuts into your day and like telephone calls, enables people to drivel on without thinking about what theyre trying to say… thats why email is simply a more considered platform for communication (shame about the spam)

   Mark

6. I still like IM to have brief chats with people I’ve met through blogging. It’s interesting: the different interests, the varying cultures, the quick Q&A’s to help each other out. But that’s only with about a handful of people.

   IM’ing with locals or work related contacts sucks, though. If they’re just friends, meet up in the pub, if they’re clients, call them. That’s just so much better for explaining things, steering projects into the right direction.

   IM just creates misunderstandings big time!

   I’ve gone off it too, then. And nobody tells me when I ‘should’ be online or when I ‘should’ respond if I am.

   Funny evolution, though, isn’t it?

7. Sorry, dude! I hope I haven’t been a contributor to your lack of focus. I hate getting IM’ed and interrupted also.

   For the most part if I’m really busy, I’ll either stay logged out of IM or I’ll set my visibility to invisible or I’ll just plain ignore the request for chat.

   Anyway, my apologies, Chris. 😉

8. I hate cars too!!! They are always speeding, rarely make complete stops at stop signs, frequently cut me off in traffic, and it seems like there is always a crash on the 101. Man cars SUCK!

   IM is what you make of it. If you don’t want to be contacted, don’t turn it on. If it needs to be on, create a nice autmated response that says something like, “I got your message, I will respond as soon as I can, don’t keep sending me the same stupid question or asking me ‘Are you there?…Are you there?’.”

   …just my 2 cents 😉

9. This wasn’t really a rant on anybody in particular. It’s nice to chat with people and fun. It’s the combination of 10 or 20 conversations a day that really makes the situation a problem.

   I’ve decided that I’m going to log on to my instant messenger at select times in the day, and be available then. But not 100% of the time.

10. Does anyone use this as a point of contact for client relations? I usually don’t find too many potential clients that use it, just curious. I suppose if your clients expect you to be online and available, IM would be an easy means to solve the problem.

    …this same dilemma came up when cell phones were becoming more popular….always being available, always ringing, always a ton of voice mail. Maybe in 10 years everyone will be so accustomed to IM mania it becomes the norm.

11. I don’t use it for typical client contact. However, probably half of my work is contract work for agencies and other firms. In the second case, IM can be invaluable as a tool for quick communication and collaboration on a project.
    I try to keep my email checking and poking down to hourly at most. A quick IM convo with an art director or project manager can cut the potential to get caught up in email.

    It took me a while, but I finally have my IM all dialed in to be as inobtrusive as possible. Very subtle notifiers if it’s not in the foreground and super easy and semi-automated status changing, etc.

12. I came up with a revolutionary idea that will fix IM interruptions forever. It’s a simple solution involving…

    Hang on, someone’s messaging me.

13. IM Not…

    If you follow this site at all, you’ll remember I posted not too long ago about the plethora of apps I use to communicate. Well, although my buddy Chris (one of the 3 readers of this site) beat me to……

14. I’ve discovered that “away” also works. Hehehe. Thanks for the comments everybody. I see I’m not alone.

15. but i love how IM’s have come such a long way…i mean look at imvu…it’s pretty annoying but it’s really starting to push things..also i discovered the moji im with intelligent pets…it’s a pretty cool thought to have virtual pets that respond to chat…nice one

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