34. Chat

There was a time when you could only chat with someone else when you were face to face.

I’m not from that time.

Then, telephones were invented and soon, you could chat with anyone who also had a phone for as long as you wanted…well, as long as you had a phone subscription or enough coins for a pay phone. I grew up in such times, but I never really called up anyone to chat much because I didn’t have anyone to chat with over the phone. And I didn’t like chatting. I preferred to read.

When I learned how to chat socially, I did it with my best friends in grade school and high school, and even if I had the phone numbers of some of my friends, I still didn’t call anyone much just to chat. Phone calls were for important things, to set appointments and dates and other such business.

Then I encountered boys. And they called. And we chatted. And it was fun. And tickled me pink. And I learned that people don’t always look the way their voices sounded. So I was careful about getting set up by phone. Anyone I entertained on the phone was already someone I had met.

It never occurred to me to chat away on a phone with friends. That’s probably because I usually met my friends everyday, at school or at work and we already spent a lot of time chatting. Well, not really–I did chat with friends occasionally on the phone, but it was usually they who called me. As I said, I’m bad for phone chatting. I could have called friends so many times just to chat but I never wanted to bother them in their daily routines because they might be doing something and not really want to chat. So I’d just chat if they initiated the call. I still only called for important reasons or business purposes, hardly ever to just chat. Unless I really liked a guy. But I’m not getting into that.

Then, the personal computer was invented. Most of the time, I just used it for work, because that was pretty much all it was limited to. Well, there was email and browsing as well, but those were limited too. Email was for work. Browsing, well, that was a waste of time if it didn’t involve work. Besides, there wasn’t a whole lot of stuff to browse through then.

Then Windows was invented. And Yahoo! And Yahoo! groups And Yahoo! Messenger. Still, I didn’t chat. My YM list never expanded. I used Yahoo! groups for classes. And Yahoo! for mail.

Then Facebook was invented. From everything I’d heard about Facebook as a “social networking” site, I didn’t think I’d want to get on it. After all, I could attend to my business through Yahoo! Mail, and my browsing consisted of research for work or writing purposes.

Then I finally decided I should try and see what this Facebook was all about, as everyone at work was on Facebook. After a tentative foray into Facebook, I eventually got into the swing of things and discovered that so many hundreds of people I knew and encountered in the past were also on Facebook! All of a sudden, my wondering about how a former student or a former classmate or a former colleague were was not just wondering. I could actually find many of them on Facebook and actually “connect’ with them so that I knew how they were doing, what they were up to, what they were thinking, planning, eating, playing. Let’s not get into that.

And I discovered FB Chat. Believe me, it wasn’t that I was avoiding it. One of my friends just suddenly popped up in a box and we got into chatting! Because I had used YM, I was familiar with the box popping up out of nowhere. Soon, friends were popping up now and then, and I have found it a great and wonderful to keep in touch, keep up, especially with people you’ve been close to, or want to remain close to. Oh, I’m still bad at initiating a chat session. I’m usually working at my email, my blog, my online writing presence, my freelance writing, when a box suddenly pops up. Sometimes the box pops up and I’m not around, so those people get ignored. Not that I meant to ignore them. And sometimes the box pops up when I’m really busy writing and don’t want to be disturbed…because I don’t want to break my trend of thought…like now. But most of the time, when a box pops up, it’s someone I really want to keep in touch with, so we chat…and chat and chat and chat.

It’s a really great way to get a “live” conversation going, which is way different from sending wall messages and comments and likes. Still, all the other passive/active ways of keeping in touch is a great way to keep people in your lives and remind them that you’re still interested in them. I like best the fact that you can jump into any wall conversation and have your say! No matter that you don’t get a response. You still have your say.

Of course, I avoid having my say on everything. Some things are just so trivial or ignorable. After all, people can say or put anything they want on their walls (barring the self-policing and policing by watchers who can flag your content as inappropriate or offensive…not that this censorship happens all the time) because there is freedom of speech on the Internet! And it allows people to say things. And sometimes others listen. Let’s not get into that.

So I’m writing this because I just concluded a very pleasant chat session with an old schoolmate from university days, sharing notes on a variety of things.

What’s bad about it? The chatting just keeps on and on…other things get put aside. Sure, you can end it when you want, or just not reply at all when you have something really important to do. But it’s just nice chatting with some people.

So I’ve put off my housecleaning, which I promised myself I’d do today all morning at least, before I sat down to chat. What happened? I ended up starting my day clearing my email inbox, then started answering some email, and before you knew it, a chat box, then another and another yet popped up. It’s amazing that I can chat with three different people at the same time. On a phone or face-to-face, that would be considered rude, especially if the people are involved in different conversations with you! But on Chat, nobody knows who else you’re chatting with! Or what else you’re doing while you’re chatting. That is just awesome!

So I do look forward to Chats, because it makes me feel like all your friends are closer than they really are…that people are just next door…just a Chat box away even if they’re halfway around the world! I think social networking is an amazing breakthrough in communication. Whatever happens, though, I don’t plan to get a webcam. I’d rather chat away without having to dress up or fix myself up just to chat. We still need that certain level of privacy in our lives, and webcams just cross that line and I’m not comfortable with that.

But I will chat!