I wake up each morning hearing the clicking noises of the computer mouse coming from my desk. What’s she doing?
Checking away messages. What am I about to get out of bed and start doing? Check away messages. When did the words that people put into a little 3-by-5 box on a computer screen become literature for the rest of us to fawn over? I remember when people used to wake up in the morning and read a good book or the newspaper. I guess it’s become pointless to do that, because everyone would rather check 70 away messages and profiles online.
Today is the day I address this behavior as a problem. We have created for ourselves an AIM nation, and it isn’t healthy. The truth is that I’m just as convicted of this as the next buddy on the list, so I can’t judge. But I can speculate on what I’ve seen.
The truth can’t be denied. Instant messenger has changed the way we communicate. At first it was all fun and games, but now it seems as if people have become overly obsessed with the words they type onto the screen.
The only reason we sign on anymore is for the sole reason of getting to put up a little sticky pad to let everyone know that we have something better to do than talk to them.
If someone’s away message just says “here” I can’t help but ask myself why they even have to tell me that. Does this mean that person is sitting at the other side of the computer screen staring straight at my screen name, wondering why I’m not away or idle and I haven’t taken the care to drop them a “hey”?
Then there’s the other extreme — when you come across the person who wants to make it well known that they are “out and about” and urge you to “ hit up the cell.” Even if I wanted to, I’m not sure how or why I would “hit up a cell.” What did the cell ever do wrong to make me want to hit it?
Then there’s always the smiley faces and fonts fiasco. I’m pretty sure we’ve all talked to that person who thinks it’s a good idea to use the font called “Curlz MT” with hot pink lettering and a lime green background that makes your eyeballs sting and is impossible to read.
I also can’t say enough about people who overuse smiley faces. The thought of that gaudy winky face with the mole on her cheek (everyone knows what I’m talking about) never has seemed to get any emotion across to me in an online conversation. Does it mean that the person is trying to give me attitude, or a kiss?
Speaking from experience, I can basically sum up the ridiculousness of away messages into three types. First, the song lyric route. We’ve all seen it; those people who feel they can both captivate others and sum up every single thought that is going on in their head with a few Avril Lavigne quotes.
Sadly, I am completely guilty of this, but then I ask myself why I do this. Is it because I think these are words that will someone will read and will ultimately change their outlook on life? Probably not. Maybe I post song lyrics because I’m too scared to just say what I’m really thinking so I have to disguise it.
Second, there is the person who feels the need to put something along the lines of “I love you so much baby, can’t wait to spend every day with you this summer … only 47 days!” at the bottom of the away message box. That’s real cute, but it’s starting to make me nauseous.
Last comes the away message I see so many girls fall victim to. No one likes to see this one. It’s the one that uses about 10 different fonts and a spectrum of colors just to write something that the person thinks sounds intellectual and profound, like “I live for the nights I can’t remember with the friends I’ll never forget.”
When it comes down to it, I realize that it shouldn’t matter if the words that we fill the away message box are deep or witty. Whatever we write in it isn’t going to be life-changing.
I think everyone is becoming afraid of just signing off and being disconnected, but maybe it’s something we should all try. So next time you click the mouse, move it to the “sign off” option instead of “check away message.”
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