OK, maybe "hate" is too strong a word, but I've always had a strong aversion to instant messaging, especially in the workplace. I touched on this subject in a long-ago post, but a recent conversation with two of my colleagues got me thinking about it again.

Upon learning that I and a co-worker not only don't use IM, but assiduously avoid it, another colleague asked us, "What is it with you guys and IM? What horrible things do you think will happen if you are on IM? :-)"

Fair enough question. Here are my reasons:

1) IMs are intrusive. You know how annoying it is when you're mousing over a web site and an ad suddenly pops up or even takes over the screen? That's what IM feels like to me. When I'm trying to focus, I don't need an instant  message shoved in my face, especially since...

2) Way too many IMs are trivial and unimportant. Just because IM'ing someone is easy (you don't have to dial, you don't even have to type in an email address) doesn't mean it should be used to convey whatever insipid  thought pops into your head: "u c amy winehouse on youtube? WTF!!!!!!"  But too many people do.

Worse, there are those -- the insecure, the lonely, the manipulative -- who use IM for mission-critical missives such as "'mornin'" and "hi" and "how r u?" I don't mean to sound anti-social here, but if you worked remotely, would you phone  someone at the main office just to say "hi"? We get it; you're at your desk, workin' hard! Well, you're at your desk, anyway.

3) IMs virtually demand instant replies. "mornin'"...
"Chris?"...
"Chris?"...
"r u there?"...

Yes, I took three minutes to go to the bathroom. Is that allowed?

4) IM threads go on interminably.  Just when you think the ordeal finally is over,  you see the dreaded, "IM Maven is typing..." 

5) They have these things called emails and phones. Last I checked, these were still working pretty well and seemed fast enough.

Those are my practical reasons for not using instant messaging. I'll leave the philosophical to my fellow IM-avoiding co-worker, who offers a far more eloquent rationale. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this with you:

For me, I've been addicted to the Internet and technology for years, sort of joined at the hip. So much so that when my wife and I took a weekend getaway, she told me she was surprised I didn't bring my laptop.

Using IM would be like losing that last little bit of myself that isn't connected to the Internet. I'm trying to maintain some healthy separation, however minor.