COMM 202 Journal #2

I started to gain access to the Internet 5 years ago. Yet it took so long to load the sites that I wasn’t motivated to go online. Later, with the introduction of high-speed modem, I started to interact on the net using E-mails and chat rooms. Once I was introduced to the instant messaging tool- ICQ, I was totally addicted to it. Whenever my friends called, I would tell them that I preferred chatting with them through ICQ. I can interact with many different people at the same time on ICQ, whereas I could only concentrate to one person on the phone. During the summer in 1998, I usually stayed at home all day and chatted with people online rather than going out with friends. In fact, my parents were strict and I couldn’t go out all the time anyway. I became a computer addict at that time.

Emails and ICQ become vital communication tools to me when I left my home Hong Kong and came here for college. I go online all the time since I have Ethernet in my dorm room. Usually I keep my ICQ window open and do other things. That means I will IM with people when I am studying or doing homework. I keep in touch with my friends in Hong Kong through E-mails and ICQ. As long distance calls are expensive, I would rather chat with my friends in Hong Kong online. However, it sacrifices my relationship with friends who are not wired. I seldom kept in touch with them as I expect to contact all my friends through Internet rather than letters or phone calls. As for my family, I still talked to them mainly on the phone, yet sometimes we would use Emails too. My parents, especially my mom, were reluctant to use E-mail before I went to the States. Yet after I came to USC, they started to use E-mails to communicate with me since they realized E-mail is a good way to reach me beside long distance phone calls.

I also use ICQ to meet friends and sustain friendship. When I first came to USC, I didn’t know anyone. I found ICQ a great tool to search for other fellow Trojans who are also from Hong Kong. Also whenever I met a new person in real life, we will usually exchange phone number as well as ICQ number. Then we usually go online and chat on ICQ and talk on the phone only when necessary. Of course we also have lunch or go out together, but whenever we are at home, our main way of communication will be instant messaging. For my friends in Hong Kong, though I can’t interact with them face-to-face, I can still talk to them about personal matters through instant messaging and E-mails.

I think it is better to use Internet to communicate with people individually rather as groups. After I graduated from high school, some of my ex-classmates wanted to organize an online community so that we can stay connected to each other. We all joined something called an E-circle at www.ecircles.com. In the E-circle, we can post messages, make announcements and upload files. However, I found that most of us didn’t pay attention to it at all after they joined it. A few were enthusiastic about it and kept posting messages at first, but later on all of us started to forget about the whole thing. Now when I went to www.ecircles.com, it says ecircles.com will no longer be available and is permanently shut down. This proves that sometimes websites are not so reliable. Also, I think the online community we created somehow mirrored the reality. My high school friends and I went to different colleges and mingled with different people. We were busy with our lives and we have less common ground. Either online or offline, it is natural that we stopped keeping in touch. Of course, there are some exceptions. That’s why I would prefer person-to-person interaction than group communication.

I usually use E-mail to contact my TAs and professors as most of them said they preferred E-mails. Some classes used Blackboard or class websites to make announcement, upload and download documents and post grades. I found these virtual tools very useful. In the past, the teachers used to be very distant and could not be reached out of school. Now, whenever I came up with questions for the class or homework, I can send an E-mail to ask the teacher immediately. All in all, it encourages me to raise questions and enables me to communicate with my professors or TA s personally.

Internet really alters my way of communication and my relationships drastically. I can say I spend more time on virtual communication than real life interaction. Of course there are also pitfalls for communicating online. Unable to get online will be my worst nightmare. A few years ago, there was one time that my computer was infected by the CIH virus. I couldn’t even open my computer and enter Windows. I still remember those lonely nights back then before I fixed my computer. I was totally helpless and I desperately wanted to get online. I have tried to call some friends up but I realize that they can’t spend so much time on the phone like they did on ICQ. That incident may prove that I rely on the computer and Internet too much. Still, I think it is a systematic and effective way of communication.