Overly Positive

I think it seems like only yesterday that we were really using messaging clients that were simplistic and didn’t offer much functionality other than to send hastily created internet shorthand and smilies about the latest stuff.  Back then, I was really only using messaging as a real-time way to keep up with friends, chat with them between classes or during boring work days, and otherwise treat it as a trivial tool.

These days, if I didn’t have my messaging client, I’d be unable to keep up with game development contacts, talk to the staff who work under me to get things done, and find out the latest news from automatic news feeds. I wouldn’t be able to update my Twitter status and check on Facebook nor would I be able to keep my eye out for people miles away who I hardly talk to.  In short, I’m attached at the hip to it. Welcome to the new millennium, right?

Fortunately, developers who put together messaging clients are aware of this. They build new features that allow for collaboration in more effective and convenient ways. They keep up with the trends in new technology and find ways to put widgets in that integrate well with them.  Some people would say this is a bit too much, that messaging clients are getting to be more top-heavy when they don’t need to be.  I feel that, but I also think that there’s a certain kind of evolution currently happening with real-time collaboration that started with the rise of Myspace and Facebook, continues with Twitter, and which might move even further with future-thinking tools like Google Wave and Basecamp.

But while I get excited about the latest collaborative messaging tools and technology, I know that I’m not everyone. If you have a comment about how much you personally use messaging or if you grok a certain messaging client, I’d love to hear about it and how you personally use messaging in your daily lives. Leave a comment and let me know what you do!