Instant Messaging free essay sample

Instant messaging services may also provide video calling, file sharing, PC-to-PC voice calling and PC-to-regular-phone calling. Instant messaging has promoted IP telephony because the IM software makes it easy to switch from text chat to voice chat if the user has a headset or microphone and speakers. â€Å"Social networking tools such as instant messaging (IM), blogs and wikis are widely adopted in society. IM is characterized by the immediate receipt of messages, allowing effective and efficient communication between interlocutors† (Ou Davison, 2011, p. 1). The IM Services Instant messaging (IM) became popular after Israeli-based ICQ introduced its service in 1996, which was later acquired by AOL. The major IM services are AOLs Instant Messenger (AIM), ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, Jabber and Microsofts incarnations: MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. See AIM, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, Jabber, MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. Although third-party IM clients such as Trillian (www. We will write a custom essay sample on Instant Messaging or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page ceruleanstudios. com) and Simple Instant Messenger (http://sim-im. berlios. e) were designed to interface with multiple IM services, the IM clients from the IM service itself were always proprietary to that service. Google changed that practice by basing Google Talk on the open XMPP protocol used in Jabber, which is supported by the open source community (see XMPP). See IRC, chat, chat room, voice over IM and IMUnified. Advantages of Using IM at Work There are several benefits of utilizing IM tools at any workplace. The employees use of IM as a work-related contact and communication tool to ask and answer questions, share files and engage in work-related socialization. The extent to which an IM user believes that the IM tool enables interlocutors to actively control interactions and message exchange as they interact with each other, and the degree to which the communication is synchronized. The employees perception of the quality of communication in terms of being timely, adequate, accurate, complete, interactive and effective is the key role to succeed. IM promotes mutual trust among employees and management. IM tool enhances employees perceptions of group satisfaction, group outcome satisfaction, and outcome quality (Ou Davison, 2011). Disadvantages of Using IM at Workplace Work interruption resulting from IM use, and the consequent negative impact on productivity, has been considered the major barrier to company deployment of IM at work. The primary concern relates to the perceived negative consequences of interruption: on average, a worker needs eleven minutes to return to a state of concentration on an interrupted task, though the delay will depend on many other factors including the depth and duration of interruption. Other consequences of interruption include errors, stress and reduced performance. Computer users with constant on-screen interruptions from IM unrelated to ongoing work tasks may find it difficult to resume work tasks and consequently experience longer task completion times. Such distractions are generally considered a hindrance to an employee under pressure, which consequently negatively influences communication quality and productivity. Unsurprisingly, work interruptions have been generally criticized as causing deteriorations in user effectiveness and efficiency, and increasing the number of errors. More specifically, interruptions are commonly problematic due to the cognitive limitations of human beings. If the interruption is unrelated to the task at hand, yet cannot be ignored (e. g. if it comes from a respected peer or superior) the message recipient may be reluctantly forced to mentally engage with a new topic that demands focused attention if quality communication is to be achieved. The interruption initiated by unexpected instant messages can influence employees by introducing multiple tasks that force task switching and alternating attention, and thus increase the cognitive burden on an employees attention and memory. Research in cognitive psychology shows that even when the interruptive tasks are similar to those currently in hand; the requirement of switching cognitive attention from one task to another does not reduce the disruptiveness of the interruption.