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Chatter, chatter, chatter |
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Written by Tony Phelps
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Thursday, 17 November 2005 |
Emails may take only minutes to get from sender to receiver, but you
can also use the internet for instant communication – “chat” has been a
popular part of the internet for years.
Online chat allows two or more people to send text to each other in
real-time ie. One person types a sentence, presses Enter to send it,
and the other person receives it straight away. It is quick,
convenient, and cheaper than a phone call. The faster you type, the
more you can say.
Chat caught on a few years ago as an easy way to keep in touch without
paying high phone bills – mostly by young adults and kids who were
being banned from the home phone! Chat provides more privacy than a
phone, since you can’t be overheard, and of course it looks like you’re
busy at the computer when in fact you’re just gossiping (which is why
chat software is blocked in many workplaces).
There are many applications that can provide chat services, and usually
these days you will find all sorts of “add-on” bells & whistles
that make the chat experience better. For example, most programs will
include the ability to send and receive emoticons, small graphics that
indicate an emotion eg. A smiley face, a sad face, a frustrated face,
and many many more. In fact, emoticons are a small industry of their
own, with recent versions showing animated 3D-effect emoticons – as
they say, a picture tells a thousand words, and a thousand words is a
lot of typing.
As is usual on the internet, all is not good – chat software can fall
prey to viruses and can weaken the security of your computer, but
perhaps worse that these, there are people with very malicious
intentions trying to fool and trap online chatters. There have been
several news items of evil people starting a relationship with a child
via chat, and luring the child to a secluded location. If your children
use chat, the best advice is to keep an open, honest relationship with
them and make sure they tell you when someone online starts talking
about “secret” stuff. Banning children from chat software just makes
them hide it. |
