It has been nearly four years since the introduction of Instant Messaging into pop culture. I have been able to abstain from the practice (a proud accomplishment as a 16-year-old girl), never understanding the appeal of a conversation comprised of indecipherable abbreviations.

Recently, however, I have had the need to use the IM program as it has become the only way to keep in touch with my friends in other countries. Within hours of downloading IM, I became addicted.

How had I underestimated the power of this tool?

Toolor weapon?

As the days wore on, I quickly found that my interactions with people on IM were not true to how I would act had I been conversing with them in person. My messages were mocking, impertinent and brazen – none of my characteristics. IM gives us the ability to change ourselves without any immediate consequences. We can say whatever we want to whomever we want, and the only response comes in colorful writing with a maddening little reverberation. We are not able to interact in a genuine way because the appeal to be someone else is too great, so our social skills become distorted.

In addition, IM symbolizes the end of an art form. There is no longer need for letters, for stationary, or address books. Our conversations will not survive on paper, or serve as a reference for future generations. Instead they will be trapped, forever, in cyberspace.

Emma Ambrose, Poland