With all the ways we have to communicate with each other today, has instant messaging become obsolete? I tried to think the other day about the last time I sent an instant message and really couldn’t remember. I think it may have been when I was trying to send a file to a co-worker. I am not even sure that would qualify as a instant message, it would be more of a file transfer using the instant message platform.

I think that is what instant messaging has become, more of a platform than a action. People now use it to video chat, play games, and remotely connect to someone’s desktop. How many of us actually use it to send a message? After all we now have Twitter, Facebook, and texting for that. It seems that  rarely do we need to send a message where we can’t use one of those platforms to do it.

I remember just a few years ago when it was not uncommon to have five or six chat windows open at a time in my MSN Messenger. I would be typing as quick as humanly possible trying to keep up with all the conversations. Now I have so many other avenues to communicate I don’t even really need to have a messenger client installed. I can now chat through Facebook or Gmail just as I used to do on a stand alone application. Now chat is built right in to other tools I use, and available through the browser on any computer I am using.

Are the days of stand alone messenger client over? I am curious as to what you think. I believe they will continue to be used as communicating tools using voice and pictures, however the days of typing for hours on hours to friends or co-workers are a thing of the past.

Leave a comment. When is the last time you used instant messenger to just send a typed message? What is the number one way you communicate today?