Instant Messaging

Hello everyone! I am back again to talk about instant messaging (IM) and share some of my views on the topic. 

For years instant messaging was one of my favorite methods of communicating. I have often used it to stay in touch with friends that live far away and to chat while other gamers when I’m online. In fact, when my husband and I started dating it was one of our favorite ways to stay in touch. One of the primary advantages to IM was that we could share music, pictures, and files in real time.

However, I haven’t used it as much in the past year.  With the new functionality available for text messaging, and the ability to do Facebook status checks an comments via apps on my smartphone, IM has become an out of date technology for me. My husband still uses it from time to time when he is gaming, but that is really it.

In business, I know some people still use instant messaging to connect with associates at work. However, in my profession it is generally considered an unprofessional form of communicating. Interestingly, email and texting are both acceptable. I am not sure if this is just my particular corner of the industry, or if Aviation in general has considers IM to be taboo. 

Over the years I have tried a number of IM programs including AOL's AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger. I have always found the interface and functionality of Live to be the most useful.  As a visual person I like the skins that can be put on the Live instant message boxes, and find the data sharing options to the most effective. If you are looking into getting an instant messing program, this is the one I recommend.