An interesting take on the so-called "pure" friendships that can be spawned by way of instant messaging. Online friendships aren't just initiated by way of IM of course. I've developed a number of friendships through disassociated, in some cases I've never actually met the people I've gone on to correspond with, though I can certainly empathise with some of Naomi Alderman's experiences: My dear friend Andrea - who lives in ... Read full entry

Actually it's not just social media dialogue or exchanges of communication. I'm looking for a term that describes the ever disparate discussions we have with each other, particularly friends and acquaintances. I'm talking about the snippets of conversation that can take place by way of blog comments, social network messages and wall posts, instant messaging, forums, photo-sharing sites, and micro-blogging, such as Twitter. Then there's the same thing through voicemail, text messaging, ... Read full entry

The Microsoft Messenger project has found there is an average of 6.6 degrees of separation among people, at least when it comes to users of their instant messenger (IM) service. The Microsoft Messenger project, which was presented at a technical conference in Beijing in April, went further. "To our knowledge, this is the first time a planetary-scale social network has been available to validate the well-known ‘6 degrees of ... Read full entry

Instant messaging "a linguistic renaissance" for teens University of Toronto researchers Sali Tagliamonte and Derek Denis have found that instant messaging, or IM, "language" is not almost as harmful to teenagers' ability to communicate as some parents and teachers had feared. In fact IM "speak" permits teenagers the opportunity to express themselves with a mixture of colloquial and formal language. Or "register" as my high school English teacher referred to it, ... Read full entry