AUT: IM, texting etc.

[andrew robinson <ldxar1@xxxxxxxxx>]

Texting is absolutely massive in Britain.  I think it's cos mobile phones came fairly late here compared to the US (everyone here laughs at the clunky "cellphones" Americans use in old 80s/90s films) - we've only had this as a big thing in the last five to ten years - and texting is way cheaper than phoning someone on a mobile phone, so it's become the main way people communicate when they're out of touch.  I've come across people who text while at work - drivers doing deliveries, who text one another and check their texts whenever they stop - though it's impeded because few workplaces let workers keep mobile phones when at work.  It's also used when workers need to be contacted from some kind of base, though.  I remember a student union I used to be in bought mobiles for the full-timers so they could be called or texted whenever they were on the road.

IM I think few people use.  I use yahoo messenger actually, but the one person I use it with, I had to introduce it to.  I think Yahoo and MSN Messenger are the main ones here, with AOL in third place.  I've never encountered it first or second-hand in a work setting.  I'm surprised lecturers at my university don't use it, because they all have separate offices and their own computers, and it would be more efficient, for them and for the university, if they texted instead of going looking for each other, or phoning (which is what they do).

Andy

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