My social media is largely based around Internet Relay Chat (IRC), the granddaddy of all instant messaging; in fact, I basically live in Freenode.
I find that sometimes it can offer similar distractions, but surprisingly, it isn't nearly as vortex-like as more modern chat platforms, or even many asynchronous platforms like Facebook and Twitter. I think this is because of a decades old IRC cultural expectation:
People have lives! Ask and lurk.
Most experienced IRCers use tools like MemoServ, chat relays (so they can read back over logs when they eventually get around to IRC), and bots with asyncronous message transfer (like Supybot's !tell command.)
Besides this, there are a myraid of well-entrenched ways one can control their notifications. I get alerts every time activity happens in one or two important rooms I care about, ignore alerts in a few I rarely use, and just keep half an eye on my favorite "water cooler" type rooms. If someone says my name, I'll usually answer within a few minutes...or maybe I won't, and that's culturally normal in IRC.
In short, the expectation is that presence of nick != presence of person. Most alumni IRCers "lurk", often in several dozen channels at once. Personally, I can be found in over two dozen rooms across two networks, and I'm considered a spring chicken by IRC standards.
We can easily tell when people are coming from other chat platforms, because they demand immediate answers. Sooner or later, they either (a) quit in frustration, or (b) get used to the culture and curb their impatience.
Combining the factors of culture and technology, I've found IRC to be the lowest anxiety, highest productivity form of internet-based social interaction I've ever encountered. Maybe that's why this joke continues to be so true:
IRC is the oldest, most culturally developed, most stable, least productivity-sucking social medium on the internet. (Actual community friendliness depends on the network and room, but where isn't that true?)
Truth be told, if we ever can merge consciousness, I'll be that guy.
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My social media is largely based around Internet Relay Chat (IRC), the granddaddy of all instant messaging; in fact, I basically live in Freenode.
I find that sometimes it can offer similar distractions, but surprisingly, it isn't nearly as vortex-like as more modern chat platforms, or even many asynchronous platforms like Facebook and Twitter. I think this is because of a decades old IRC cultural expectation:
People have lives! Ask and lurk.
Most experienced IRCers use tools like MemoServ, chat relays (so they can read back over logs when they eventually get around to IRC), and bots with asyncronous message transfer (like Supybot's !tell command.)
Besides this, there are a myraid of well-entrenched ways one can control their notifications. I get alerts every time activity happens in one or two important rooms I care about, ignore alerts in a few I rarely use, and just keep half an eye on my favorite "water cooler" type rooms. If someone says my name, I'll usually answer within a few minutes...or maybe I won't, and that's culturally normal in IRC.
In short, the expectation is that presence of nick != presence of person. Most alumni IRCers "lurk", often in several dozen channels at once. Personally, I can be found in over two dozen rooms across two networks, and I'm considered a spring chicken by IRC standards.
We can easily tell when people are coming from other chat platforms, because they demand immediate answers. Sooner or later, they either (a) quit in frustration, or (b) get used to the culture and curb their impatience.
Combining the factors of culture and technology, I've found IRC to be the lowest anxiety, highest productivity form of internet-based social interaction I've ever encountered. Maybe that's why this joke continues to be so true:
IRC is the oldest, most culturally developed, most stable, least productivity-sucking social medium on the internet. (Actual community friendliness depends on the network and room, but where isn't that true?)
Truth be told, if we ever can merge consciousness, I'll be that guy.