ICQ Essay -- Communication Technology Computers Essays

ICQ Uh oh At the familiar, high-pitched voice, my head snaps up from the appointee I am completing half-heartedly and turns to my computer screen. My hand has already moved unconsciously towards the computers mouse, even forrader my eyes even piddle contact with the screen. Sure enough, the sound indicated that a message awaits me, and I double-click on the flashing yellow icon in the bottom right coigne of my screen. For almost an hour now, I have been engaged in this communion over ICQ, an Internet-chat program, with a high school friend who currently attends another(prenominal) university. I am also chatting simultaneously with four other friends astir(predicate) separate topics. Ever since coming to college, ICQ and telecommunicate have become my primary feather methods of keeping in contact with, leaving messages for, and having discussions with my friends. When I meet a person, the first means for establishing future contact is no longer What is your enviro n number? besides rather, What is your email address? which is closely followed by Do you have ICQ? Electronic communication media are not only convenient, but they are economical and allow present momentaneous contact. If I initiate an ICQ murmur with one of my friends, I can even save it as a file and replay the conversation with every detail, including the misspellings and corrections. Information technology has boomed in the last ten years or so. We seem to have arrive in the middle of a completely profited public with step forward quite shrewd how we got there. Distance no longer inhibits communication, and we have become a world that is better connected. Or have we? My freshman year college roommate worn out(p) his entire freshman year ICQ-ing, IM-ing (i.e. Instant Messenger, America... ... Perhaps driving to the store, weft out groceries, and getting into an argument with the checkout person will do us more good than the half hour we save by grocery shop ping through HomeRuns.com. A little over a week ago, when a virus wiped out my computer, I lost ne dickensrk access in my room. I dreaded the inconveniences I would face before getting my computer fixed. No more ICQ, no more instant email. For a two weeks now, I have needed to check my email in a friends room, read a newspaper to find out the news and the weather instead of checking cnn.com, and make phone calls in holy order to locate people instead of ICQing them. As I evaluate these two Internet-less weeks, however, I find that I have had more intellectually stimulating conversations in this week than I have had in the previous month. Who knows? I may resist the desire to fix the connection.