Đỗ Huyền My
(Sagittarius)
Điều hành viên
Making a Statement, in Absentia
By JOYCE COHEN, NYT
March 20, 2003
The first thing Emily Loesche does when she arrives home - home being her dorm room at Middlebury College - is check her e-mail.
The second thing she does is check on everyone else, seeing how many different ways the 190-odd people on her online buddy list have found to say they are out.
"Pray they cancel classes tomorrow because I'm not doing any work tonight," her friend Catherine has written.
"Rub-a-dub-dub," has been posted by Allison, who is apparently taking a shower.
"I want my jacket back and some *$& #@ IS KEEPING THE JACKET BUT GIVING ME BACK THE ID errrr!" her friend Sasha has written. (Sasha's winter jacket, with her college ID card in the pocket, had been stolen, and the card was returned anonymously to her mailbox.)
"I am pushing on the door of opportunity - would someone please give me a hand?" another friend writes.
From someone else: "As usual, frivolity has won out over work."
And so on and so on.
"I look through everyone's away message once or twice a day, and I look at my best friends' more frequently," said Ms. Loesche, a sophomore. "I could spend forever doing it."
Forever? That's how it seems.
Away messaging, a function of instant messaging, has become something of an obsession on college campuses, providing communication, entertainment, procrastination and social life all rolled into one. "Students go online just to read their friends' away messages," said David Jacobson, a professor of anthropology at Brandeis University, who has taught courses examining away messages. "It's a whole new dynamic that's really remarkable."
In college dorms, those always-wired students keep their instant message windows open, and send messages back and forth with their buddies who are also signed on.
Those who step away from their computers can post an away message, signaled by a notepad icon beside their screen name. The system functions like an answering machine for a computer, showing that someone cannot immediately reply.
Students rarely post the default away message that comes with the program. ("I am away from my computer right now," for example, comes with AOL Instant Messenger, the program of choice on college campuses.) Instead, they create their own, transforming the away message into a kind of personal bulletin board available to anyone who cruises by.
They post a little of everything: news, quotes, schedules, song lyrics, birthday greetings, party invitations, jokes, veiled insults, confessions, exclamations, complaints. The messages may be meaningful to everybody, somebody or nobody.
Students change their away messages often. And they keep track of not just their nearest and dearest but all sorts of acquaintances - roommates and strangers, exes and enemies, college classmates and high school friends attending college elsewhere.
"It's a different dimension than you get from e-mail," Professor Jacobson said. "You may look at your e-mail address book but you don't get the sense of someone being available. There's a psychological component of being in touch: 'I wonder what my friend is up to.' So you look at the away message."
Before she entered college, Emily Sanders, now a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, had visited campus and "noticed people always had their instant message up." Now she knows why. With the dorms wired to provide high-speed connections, "you can be online all the time for free," Ms. Sanders said. "I can't think of anything better."
She said her friends often use away messaging as an emotional outlet. "One friend always has up song lyrics that reflect her mood," she said. Ms. Sanders has done that, too. During reflective moments, "I would be listening to sad songs and would be, 'That would make a great away message.' "
Although many keep an ear out for lyrics and quotes they can post, Stephen Demanovich, a junior at the College of the Holy Cross, disdains the practice. "I quote my friends but I don't quote famous figures or song lyrics," Mr. Demanovich said. "That is unoriginal."
His own away messages are often dialogues, part real and part fabricated. When he and his friend Bob were discussing housing options, this exchange occurred:
Bob: We need to either find something really cheap or consider taking on more roommates.
Steve: Having my own place is essential to my happiness. You cannot say, 'So, wanna go back to my mom's house and make out?' It simply doesn't work."
After a snowstorm, his message was: "Would the woolly mammoth please step away from my window?"
He has a reputation to uphold; he is known for posting great away messages.
"People pay an unusual amount of attention," he said. "If I have the same one for too long, people will be like, 'Hey, Steve, what's been up?' Everybody enjoys reading them. The frequency with which people check lets me know it's interesting and a part of somebody's day."
Not surprisingly, the real message in away messaging is between the lines. "I see away messages providing a venue for developing, nurturing and controlling the social network," said Naomi Baron, a linguistics professor at American University who taught a class last semester that analyzed away messages.
The primary function is "to position yourself within a social circle and not lose your stature," Professor Baron said. Even a message saying someone is sleeping or showering has a bigger purpose: "I want to tell you where I am because I don't want to be left out of the loop. Away messages are working overwhelmingly on this subtle underlying level."
"An away message saying, 'I'm stressed out,' or 'LSAT will eat me,' is a cri de coeur, a plea for communication or commiseration," Professor Baron said. "One person left these intricate messages: 'Out to dinner and who knows what will happen after that.' She wanted people to see her as a social butterfly."
As with other kinds of computer communication, people can easily manage the impressions they create via away message. Whereas they once avoided answering the phone if they were sitting home alone on Saturday night, they can now post a social-butterfly type of message, even if they are on the couch watching videos. And if students write that they are studying hard, well, who knows whether that's because they figure Mom will be checking?
The most obvious sign of a good away message is whether it provokes responses. Students say they are cheered to return to a screenful of messages replying to their away message, and disheartened to return to an empty one.
What's more, the away message "becomes a litmus test for personal worth," said Rebecca Blatt, another sophomore at Penn. "Writing 'having an awful day,' or 'drowning in a sea of tears' clearly invites a reaction. What if no one responds?"
And when it comes to sweethearts, especially former and future ones, away messaging adds a new immediacy. Those unwilling to delete a former flame's screen name can effortlessly if painfully keep track of a life they are no longer part of.
Mr. Demanovich admits he has used away messaging "to socially engineer some stuff." His away message has said he is out with one girl in order to make another one jealous.
"I know she is going to read my away message and will wonder who the girl is," he says. "It helps out, which is fantastic."
Checking, with its voyeuristic and addictive appeal, is the biggest time-sucker of all. "With 190 people on my buddy list, it can take a lot of time checking them," said Ms. Loesche at Middlebury. "I find myself clicking whether I care what they are doing or not. Last year I got to the point where I had to take someone off to add someone." (AOL says that a buddy list can hold up to 200 names.)
There are tricks for finding out who might be viewing your message, like using tools available at www .imchaos.com. Users can provide a link in their away message and then see who has clicked on the link.
"It felt good to see people I hadn't talked to in five years checking through IMChaos," said Natalie Lambert, a senior at Brandeis. "I do the same with them. I know it sounds really sick but it's not."
Professor Baron expects away messaging to evolve speedily. If wireless hand-helds become common, for example, lengthy away messages might become obsolete - too much typing (or scrawling).
Students, too, see an evolution in the own use of away message. Ms. Blatt finds herself using it more. "I got busier this year and don't always have time to communicate in person or on the phone," she said. "It saves so much time. I don't have to say separately to six different people that I'm going home for the weekend."
For most, though, it is less of a draw over time. Even Mr. Demanovich now changes his message relatively infrequently, a mere twice a day.
"In my freshman and sophomore years, I changed it maybe five times a day," he said. "I was always at my computer. But as you get more socially active and have more to do and are actually interacting with people, I see less of a need to construct an away message."
By JOYCE COHEN, NYT
March 20, 2003
The first thing Emily Loesche does when she arrives home - home being her dorm room at Middlebury College - is check her e-mail.
The second thing she does is check on everyone else, seeing how many different ways the 190-odd people on her online buddy list have found to say they are out.
"Pray they cancel classes tomorrow because I'm not doing any work tonight," her friend Catherine has written.
"Rub-a-dub-dub," has been posted by Allison, who is apparently taking a shower.
"I want my jacket back and some *$& #@ IS KEEPING THE JACKET BUT GIVING ME BACK THE ID errrr!" her friend Sasha has written. (Sasha's winter jacket, with her college ID card in the pocket, had been stolen, and the card was returned anonymously to her mailbox.)
"I am pushing on the door of opportunity - would someone please give me a hand?" another friend writes.
From someone else: "As usual, frivolity has won out over work."
And so on and so on.
"I look through everyone's away message once or twice a day, and I look at my best friends' more frequently," said Ms. Loesche, a sophomore. "I could spend forever doing it."
Forever? That's how it seems.
Away messaging, a function of instant messaging, has become something of an obsession on college campuses, providing communication, entertainment, procrastination and social life all rolled into one. "Students go online just to read their friends' away messages," said David Jacobson, a professor of anthropology at Brandeis University, who has taught courses examining away messages. "It's a whole new dynamic that's really remarkable."
In college dorms, those always-wired students keep their instant message windows open, and send messages back and forth with their buddies who are also signed on.
Those who step away from their computers can post an away message, signaled by a notepad icon beside their screen name. The system functions like an answering machine for a computer, showing that someone cannot immediately reply.
Students rarely post the default away message that comes with the program. ("I am away from my computer right now," for example, comes with AOL Instant Messenger, the program of choice on college campuses.) Instead, they create their own, transforming the away message into a kind of personal bulletin board available to anyone who cruises by.
They post a little of everything: news, quotes, schedules, song lyrics, birthday greetings, party invitations, jokes, veiled insults, confessions, exclamations, complaints. The messages may be meaningful to everybody, somebody or nobody.
Students change their away messages often. And they keep track of not just their nearest and dearest but all sorts of acquaintances - roommates and strangers, exes and enemies, college classmates and high school friends attending college elsewhere.
"It's a different dimension than you get from e-mail," Professor Jacobson said. "You may look at your e-mail address book but you don't get the sense of someone being available. There's a psychological component of being in touch: 'I wonder what my friend is up to.' So you look at the away message."
Before she entered college, Emily Sanders, now a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, had visited campus and "noticed people always had their instant message up." Now she knows why. With the dorms wired to provide high-speed connections, "you can be online all the time for free," Ms. Sanders said. "I can't think of anything better."
She said her friends often use away messaging as an emotional outlet. "One friend always has up song lyrics that reflect her mood," she said. Ms. Sanders has done that, too. During reflective moments, "I would be listening to sad songs and would be, 'That would make a great away message.' "
Although many keep an ear out for lyrics and quotes they can post, Stephen Demanovich, a junior at the College of the Holy Cross, disdains the practice. "I quote my friends but I don't quote famous figures or song lyrics," Mr. Demanovich said. "That is unoriginal."
His own away messages are often dialogues, part real and part fabricated. When he and his friend Bob were discussing housing options, this exchange occurred:
Bob: We need to either find something really cheap or consider taking on more roommates.
Steve: Having my own place is essential to my happiness. You cannot say, 'So, wanna go back to my mom's house and make out?' It simply doesn't work."
After a snowstorm, his message was: "Would the woolly mammoth please step away from my window?"
He has a reputation to uphold; he is known for posting great away messages.
"People pay an unusual amount of attention," he said. "If I have the same one for too long, people will be like, 'Hey, Steve, what's been up?' Everybody enjoys reading them. The frequency with which people check lets me know it's interesting and a part of somebody's day."
Not surprisingly, the real message in away messaging is between the lines. "I see away messages providing a venue for developing, nurturing and controlling the social network," said Naomi Baron, a linguistics professor at American University who taught a class last semester that analyzed away messages.
The primary function is "to position yourself within a social circle and not lose your stature," Professor Baron said. Even a message saying someone is sleeping or showering has a bigger purpose: "I want to tell you where I am because I don't want to be left out of the loop. Away messages are working overwhelmingly on this subtle underlying level."
"An away message saying, 'I'm stressed out,' or 'LSAT will eat me,' is a cri de coeur, a plea for communication or commiseration," Professor Baron said. "One person left these intricate messages: 'Out to dinner and who knows what will happen after that.' She wanted people to see her as a social butterfly."
As with other kinds of computer communication, people can easily manage the impressions they create via away message. Whereas they once avoided answering the phone if they were sitting home alone on Saturday night, they can now post a social-butterfly type of message, even if they are on the couch watching videos. And if students write that they are studying hard, well, who knows whether that's because they figure Mom will be checking?
The most obvious sign of a good away message is whether it provokes responses. Students say they are cheered to return to a screenful of messages replying to their away message, and disheartened to return to an empty one.
What's more, the away message "becomes a litmus test for personal worth," said Rebecca Blatt, another sophomore at Penn. "Writing 'having an awful day,' or 'drowning in a sea of tears' clearly invites a reaction. What if no one responds?"
And when it comes to sweethearts, especially former and future ones, away messaging adds a new immediacy. Those unwilling to delete a former flame's screen name can effortlessly if painfully keep track of a life they are no longer part of.
Mr. Demanovich admits he has used away messaging "to socially engineer some stuff." His away message has said he is out with one girl in order to make another one jealous.
"I know she is going to read my away message and will wonder who the girl is," he says. "It helps out, which is fantastic."
Checking, with its voyeuristic and addictive appeal, is the biggest time-sucker of all. "With 190 people on my buddy list, it can take a lot of time checking them," said Ms. Loesche at Middlebury. "I find myself clicking whether I care what they are doing or not. Last year I got to the point where I had to take someone off to add someone." (AOL says that a buddy list can hold up to 200 names.)
There are tricks for finding out who might be viewing your message, like using tools available at www .imchaos.com. Users can provide a link in their away message and then see who has clicked on the link.
"It felt good to see people I hadn't talked to in five years checking through IMChaos," said Natalie Lambert, a senior at Brandeis. "I do the same with them. I know it sounds really sick but it's not."
Professor Baron expects away messaging to evolve speedily. If wireless hand-helds become common, for example, lengthy away messages might become obsolete - too much typing (or scrawling).
Students, too, see an evolution in the own use of away message. Ms. Blatt finds herself using it more. "I got busier this year and don't always have time to communicate in person or on the phone," she said. "It saves so much time. I don't have to say separately to six different people that I'm going home for the weekend."
For most, though, it is less of a draw over time. Even Mr. Demanovich now changes his message relatively infrequently, a mere twice a day.
"In my freshman and sophomore years, I changed it maybe five times a day," he said. "I was always at my computer. But as you get more socially active and have more to do and are actually interacting with people, I see less of a need to construct an away message."