Sometime this afternoon, I’ve decided to jump back in on the instant messaging scene. The decision was as quick as the day I got out of instant messaging. I believe I was one of the earliest adopters of the communication technology (my ICQ uins were low digit numbers). But for one reason of another, I woke up one day entirely fed up with replying, messaging, and dealing with instant messaging pop-ups, looking at lists of names that meant little to nothing because we have not kept in touch. I turned it off cold turkey.

That must have been almost a year ago?? I’m not sure when I exactly stopped. But it was a strangely liberating experience. In this day and age of technology and busy work schedules, my contacts with my already established circle of friends abruptly stopped. I begin to know who really wants me in their life by those who still kept in touch with me through email and phone… and also discover for myself with whom I really want to stay in touch.

Call it an experiment if you will, a validation of sorts. But at the same time, I developed new acquaintances, people with whom I don’t rely on instant messaging to stay in touch. In some ways, instant message is a bit of an evil in this brave new world. But I think I’m jumping back for the right reasons. We’ll really see how this new experiment will pan out.