How Do You Use Chat Programs?

I’m curi­ous about how you use instant mes­sag­ing programs.

If I don’t wan­na talk to ANYBODY, I prob­a­bly won’t have an IM pro­gram open at all.

When I do have one open, I’m usu­al­ly invis­i­ble, because I’m sel­dom up to speak­ing to as many peo­ple as I will hear from if I am vis­i­ble. It’s not that I’m unfriend­ly or don’t like you—I hon­est­ly just don’t have enough ener­gy for a lot of con­ver­sa­tions. It’s that damned intro­ver­sion again. I also feel like shit if I say, “Look, I don’t real­ly feel like talking.”

One rea­son I real­ly don’t like AIM much is that I can’t be invis­i­ble. I’ll be much more like­ly to use it reg­u­lar­ly when/if they ever fix that. Since AIM and ICQ share a pro­to­col, I know that it’s pos­si­ble and should­n’t real­ly be difficult.

I don’t under­stand leav­ing an IM pro­gram open and your­self signed on if you’re asleep, not even present, or are using an away mes­sage warn­ing every­body in the world that mes­sages are NOT wel­come. Why not just sign off?

I’m not attack­ing any­one, just gen­uine­ly curious.

Thank you.