Instant Messaging

Paper Summary:

The paper explores why instant messaging (IM) services offer an increasingly appropriate alternative for college students, both in terms of leisure and academic purposes. The paper shows how with less time on their hands and more time spent in front of a computer and on the Internet, the typical college student will revert to instant messaging to communicate with friends, teachers and librarians.

From the Paper:

"Instant messaging has become one of the fundamentals means of communication in the 21st century. Together with other forms of Internet communication (email, blogging etc.), instant messaging has helped created a virtual community in which individual interact with much more easiness and with increased speed. There's no category of age where this is as evident as in the college community, among college students. Whether for leisure or academic purpose, meeting with friends or discussing with the teacher the details of the course project or assignment, the instant messaging service is widely spread among college students."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hu, Yifeng, Wood, Jacqueline, Smith, Vivian, Westbrook, Nalova. Friendships through IM: Examining the Relationship between Instant Messaging and Intimacy. JCMC 10 (1), Article 6, November 2004. On the Internet at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue1/hu.html. Last retrieved on July 10, 2007
• Jones, Steve (September 2002). The Internet Goes to College. Per Internet and American Life Project. On the Internet at http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_College_Report.pdf. Last retrieved on July 10, 2007
• Grudin, Jonathan, Tallarico, Shari, Counts, Scott (November 2005). As Technophobia Disappears: Implications for Design. GROUP'05. On the Internet at http://research.microsoft.com/users/scottlt/pubs/technophobia_group05.doc. Last retrieved on July 10, 2007
• Boeninger, Chad (April 2006). Blogs, Wikis, and IM: Communication Tools for Subject Specialists. Higher Ed blog.. On the Internet at http://www.higheredblogcon.com/index.php/blogs-wikis-and-im-communication-tools-for-subject-specialists/. Last retrieved on July 10, 2007
• Mitra, A, McCoy, T, O'Brien, M (2006). Developing a Profile of the Heavy User of Instant Messaging among American College Students. Computers and Advanced Technology in Education.

More papers on Instant Messaging:

• Essay # 70685 : "Instant Messaging"
• Article Review # 134185 : "Instant Messaging Research"
• Term Paper # 122342 : "Managing Instant Messaging"
• Business Plan # 52268 : "Use of Instant Messaging in Business"

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