Abstract
This paper examines the effect of instant messaging on efficiency in the workplace. It concludes that instant messaging can be an effective communication tool that also has the potential to be disruptive in the workplace.

From the Paper
"Once the purview of teenagers staying up late into the night to converse with their friends instant messaging has found its way into the workplace. Like e-mail, the fax and the telephone, instant messaging ..."

Tags:instant messaging, employee communication, workplace efficiency

Abstract
The paper outlines how the authors explore how college students use Instant Messaging (IM). The paper discusses how the idea that students are using IM not just to communicate but to manage their identities raises a number of other issues that may need to be examined in subsequent research and that has import for psychology and sociology in the future as well as for studies of communication.

From the Paper
"The authors explore how college students use Instant Messaging (IM), and they do so using a interview with members of a focus group. The research assumes that IM has had a significant impact on the lives of college students and then sets out to show what that impact might be. The idea that students are using IM not just to communicate but to manage their identities raises a number of other issues that may need to be examined in subsequent research and that has import for psychology and sociology in..."

Tags:instant, messaging, research

Abstract
This is a paper about the use of Instant Messaging (IM) in the workplace. It discusses the advantages of IM over email as well as the current problems with IM including concerns about data security and the ability of the employer to monitor its use by employees.

From the Paper
"Despite its speed e-mail simply is not fast enough for some business functions. The sender has no way of knowing whether the intended recipient is in or available to address the sender comment question or concern. According to an essay published by Sun Microsystems online, over the next few years Instant Messaging (IM) could become one of the fastest-growing Internet-based messaging applications. Many companies are using IM for worker to worker, worker to client and worker to vendor communications. IM can improve communications and collaboration..."

Tags:IM, instant messaging, security, data, firewall, public networks, efficiency, productivity, waste, security, encryption, email

Abstract
This paper explains that instant messaging (IM) is an Internet protocol (IP) based application that provides convenient communication between people using a variety of different device types. The author points out that the most familiar IM today is computer-to-computer instant text messaging; but IM also can work with mobile devices, such as digital cellular phones, and can incorporate voice or video. The paper recommends that Clinical Study Applications, Inc., incorporate AOL Instant Messenger into its suite of software so that its two offices can communicate freely and frequently, reducing business expenses such as phone bills and travel costs.

Table of Contents
Introduction
The Technology
Potential Security and Abuse Issues
Recommendation
Conclusion
Instant Messaging Companies

From the Paper
"Instant messaging can greatly facilitate the ease and speed of communication between employees, whether they are sitting next to each other, or if their offices are half a world apart. Small questions can be answered in real time, without tying up phone lines, writing extensive emails or arranging and conducting meetings. For people who travel frequently, instant messaging allows for almost constant and up to date contact between offices. The practical functionality of IM allows a person to view whether a person is even at his desk and available. Making good use of IM programs allows others to know where you are, what you might be doing or when you will be back, simply by glancing at a computer screen."

Tags:presentities, watchers, pda, cell, aol

Abstract
In this article, the writer focuses on the way in which instant messaging has affected and is possibly changing the nature of interpersonal relationships in the contemporary communications environment. The study focuses on the 18-25 age groups as this is the demographic that has grown up with modern technology as an endemic part of their lives and who are most at home with the technology - and most directly affected by it. The paper also points out that there is a close correlation between the topic of interpersonal relationships in instant messaging and aspects of interpersonal communications. The writer notes that the fact that digital communications and interpersonal connections are closely bound in the modern world makes it difficult to discuss these two aspects separately. Therefore, this study also focuses on both interpersonal relationships and modes of communication and their points of intersection.

Outline:
Introduction
IM, Interpersonal Relationships and Communication
Conclusion

From the Paper
"In other words, the assertion is that while instant massaging facilitates more extensive modes of communications, at the same time it impacts on important aspects of interpersonal behavior that are seen to be detrimental to healthy and positive relationship formation.
"This is a view that may be seen to be somewhat extreme but it does have an element of truth that is reiterated to a certain extent in a number of modern studies. This view also states that there is a certain risk to interpersonal relationships in IM. This refers to the view that we are losing the importance of face-to-face contact and the intimacy that result from conventional interrelationships."

Tags:interaction, digital, communications, Messenger

Abstract
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."

Tags:computer, Internet, communication, interaction

Abstract
This paper takes a look at the way instant messaging has revolutionized the communication process in the work environment and then discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of using this technology at work.

From the Paper
"The use of instant messaging in work environment is rapidly growing. However, as with any element of technology, issues surround its adaptation in the work place. Some considers instant messengers as effective tool in the workplace, while others are skeptical considering it to decrease the work performance of employees because it can be a tool for gossips in the workplace as well as it can lead to chronic complaining among employees. So, the question is "Will instance messenger services increase or decrease efficiency in the workplace?"."

Tags:yahoo, american, online, msn, utility, real-time, communicate, text, voice, software, messaging

Abstract
An exploration of AIM and how it affects college students, life in general, mass media, and an exploration of the addiction to instant messaging.

From the Paper
"It is more addictive than nicotine, more prevalent than marijuana; it drives distracted students to the library and sends compulsive socialites home with failing grades, and its synonymous with college life. No, the culprit is not beer, it is not sex...this evildoer is Instant Messenger (IM). College students today live in a world where homework assignments often require Internet access, email messages replace phone calls to distant friends and family, and relationships sometimes start - and end- via instant messenger. Every morning, I begin my day not by brushing my teeth, or eating breakfast, but by checking my status on AOL Intsant Messanger (AIM) and posting a new away message. I use AIM to talk to my brother in Holland and to my housemate in the next room. I use it while procrastinating on homework, and to make dinner plans for the evening. I use it to flirt with my newest crush, and to stalk my ex-boyfriend. And, almost everyone else I know uses it."

Tags:college, computers, life, students

Abstract
The paper discusses how the widespread use of networked computers that comprise the Internet have fundamentally transformed how people communicate and the language structures through which this communication is achieved. In particular, it argues the thesis that the technology known as instant messaging (IM) is transforming language and the social networks that are dependent upon language for maintenance and growth. The argument is made that while this new mode of communication represents a distinct language use and de-centres face-to-face communications, it remains a highly efficient mode of communication for its users who have made a range of innovations in language structure to meet the design of this new medium.

From the Paper
"It is interesting to note, however, that the popularity of IM does not immediately translate into other forms of text-based communications such as text-messaging via cell phones. Indeed, only one-third of American teens have ever used a cell phone for sending a text message (Bryant et al. 580). This high level of difference suggests that IM is somehow structurally more attractive for its users. In understanding language use and structure in IM it is necessary to therefore see how this form of text-based communication is similar to text messaging and email, and how it is different. Clearly, technologically sophisticated users have radically different perspectives of these different vehicles for communication."

Tags:orthographic, social, network

Abstract
In this article, the writer discusses that while technology mediated modes of communication have existed for generations, innovations in terms of the introduction of digital wireless technologies over the past ten to fifteen years have radically transformed how people communicate. The essay explores this phenomenon with reference to such technologies as digital cell phone text messaging, computer-based instant messaging, and Internet relay chat. With reference to scholarly work on the subject, the paper is argues how the de-centring of face-to-face communication has impacted language structure in compelling users of these technologies to innovate a range of distinct communication forms.

Outline:
Introduction
Digital Communications Technology
The Impact of Digital Wireless Communication Upon Language
Conclusion

From the Paper
"This technology impacts language in a number of respects. For example, one of the most popular aspects of technology mediated modes of communication is their textual element. While cell phones are, of course, an oral communication medium, one of their most popular added functions lies with text messaging and remote e-mail access. It is difficult to say precisely why text messaging is so popular given that this technology allows the use of oral communication. It may be argued that this is due to the popularity of Instant Messaging through computers, with texting being a logical remote extension of the same practice."

Tags:text-based, digital, computer, wireless