Rate Your IM Popularity

[Jeff]

The internet used to be a safe-haven for misfits and geeks that didn't do so well in normal social circles. With instant messaging, the playing field was leveled. You could be young or old; beautiful or ugly -- and no one could judge.

Now the social ladders of the real world are permeating instant messaging. From the Washington Post:

If all of life is like high school, at last we have the answer to the question that goes to the core of our id-driven, zit-popping, green-eyed insecurity:

Are you more popular, at this very second, than the person who's instant-messaging you?

Instant messaging, you will know, is the way tens of millions of Americans connect with their buddies faster than e-mail. Beginning this week, the 50 million users of AIM, America Online's version of instant messaging -- including nearly half of all Americans between the ages of 13 and 25 -- could perform a self-esteem check by visiting http://www.aimfight.com . There you enter your AOL or AIM screen name and your friend's AOL or AIM screen name. Then you click "fight" to figure out who's got a bigger score -- as in who's better connected and more popular.

But is the size of one's buddy list really a measure of popularity?

[sarahtowny]

Not at all! How many times do you get people who want to add your name to their list. For example, if you play in yahoo games, you are asked all the time! If you added everyone who asked you, your list would be miles long...

I have 13 people on my list now, and 9 of them are from bbb! lol. My decision as to who gets on my list is the quality of friend not quantity. When I open my messenger, all the people on my list I enjoy talking to. I would hate to have a list a mile long and someone im'ing me who I didn't actually enjoy talking to, and had them on invisable all the time, (I use yahoo messenger) but that's just my view! :0)