Instant Messenger Changed My Life (For the Better!) :: Internet Essays

Instant Messenger Changed My Life (For the Better!) Since I was in Seventh or Eighth grade I have used AOL Instant Messenger as a way to communicate with my friends and family. I would sit â€Å"online† for hours upon hours talking to my friends. You weren’t cool unless you had AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) at your home. Every since the day I started using it I have become â€Å"addicted† to it. For a couple of months when it first came out it was kind of taking over my life. It would be the first thing I did when I got home from school, take a break for dinner then go straight back to chatting online until my mom forced me to go to bed. I never thought of it as a learning experience until I got a little older. When thinking back on how I learned to do things on the computer and/or some things in everyday life they all connect to AIM in a strange way. AIM had forced me to write and talk like I would type. I would use abbreviations and even spell words shorter on paper so they would be faster to write down just like on AIM when you use shorter spellings to type faster. For example the word because, first became shortened to cause then it became â€Å"cuz† since it was only three letters instead of the original seven. I think it was just around the age of sixteen when I could finally drive, that I stopped being so obsessed with AIM. Although when I left home for college, I quickly became once again obsessed. I found that instead of doing my homework I’d try to talk to my friends that didn’t have away messages up. If they did have a message up I’d check it like five times just in case it changed. Even when I have class or go to work I don’t sign off, I just put an away message up explaining to my friends and family where I am and how to get a hold of me. Now my sister who is thirteen is â€Å"a ddicted† to AIM and following in the same footsteps as myself. She would rather spend her entire summer vacation inside on the computer rather than swimming, rollerblading or riding her bike with friends.