Six Blog Assignment

Today, the internet is being broadly used to create and maintain communities and relationships that are web based. As I stated in an earlier blog, I am not active in the new facets of technology and could be less concerned with them. One form of technology that I do use is AIM. I enjoy talking on aim only to people that I have actually met and know. AIM is a huge internet community. It is constantly updating and improving its most recent technological advances.
AIM has become a significatlly increasing factor in the development of social ties within its many social communities. With the conversations that AIM allows you to have with another person, people can let out feelings and express themselves in ways that they would not normally be able to express in person. People also create new relationships. People who were just associates can become closer due to AIM. AIM allows people to find out more about their friends and builds confidence. It can build confidence because when talking to multiple people at once, you feel a sense of popularity. Confidence is something that can not easily be built up and cna not easily be taken away.
AIM is also convienient. No one that I have ever met could hold more than one phone conversation at once. IMing, the exchange of text messages through a software application in real-time is the ability to see whether a chosen friend, co-worker or buddy is online and connected through the selected service. Instant messaging differs from ordinary email in the immediacy of the message exchange and also makes a continued exchange simpler than sending e-mail back and forth(instant messaging, 2006).

Instant messaging community has evolved the english written language also. IM users have developed an evolving syntax that includes shorthand, acronyms, symbols, and other elements that constitute a unique lexicon, encouraging users to interact in ways not possible either in person or with other forms of electronic communication(educause.edu, 2005). This written language can be "english altering." Those who use aim can second that notion. As students, we have to be careful because when really writing out school work that is graded, you can sometimes input the words you use on AIM. This happens simply because the instant messaging language is extremely convienient and less thought out.
All in all, this internet communication technology had developed social ties within online communities all over the world. AIM is just one of the many internet communities that continue to amaze the citizens that reside within them.

n.a., 2006. Instant Messaging. Retrieved March 18th, 2007 from searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com

n.a., 2005. 7 things you should know about...Instant Messaging/Why is it significant? Retrieved March 18th, 2007 from www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EL17008.pdf