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Posted by
Fanatic
on
12-07-2007, 06:39 PM
This is one from the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction category...
Michael Beißwenger was studying people chatting in the Multimedia Lab at the Dortmund Institute for German Language and Literature, and discovered that 20% of all instant messages are never sent. You've seen this before; you see "Bob is typing..." on the chat window status line, but nothing ever arrives. Why do so many IMs end up never getting sent? Are we so easily distracted that we lose focus in the middle of composing a sentence? New Scientist speculates that this sort of self-editing happens in all forms of communication, including face-to-face. We think about what we're going to say, and sometimes change our mind. After all, some things really are best left unsaid. 
says
12-07-2007, 07:25 PM Quote:
says
12-07-2007, 07:39 PM Come to think of it, as I was typing my reply, I backspaced to make some changes. But I still clicked "post."
I also dugg your article. Nice one, Fantatic! IM by it's very nature is more informal than a face-to-face or even a phone conversation, and therefore more prone to interruption. IMs are mostly, but not entirely, synchronous communication. But sometimes your train of thought gets derailed.
says
12-08-2007, 01:05 AM It's understandable, due to the nature of IM and our tendency to change our minds or make typos/mistakes. Even then, though: 20%? I'm a bit surprised, as that seems like a large percentage of all messages not being sent.
I guess that's just me, though.
says
12-08-2007, 03:08 AM Maybe because when people are chatting, they type first and think later because they know they can always edit what they typed and in other forms of communication they think first and say it later because its a bit difficult to edit their output
says
12-08-2007, 08:35 AM Actually, the IMs that I don't send usually happen because the conversation takes a turn. I'll be responding to something said before, then another subject comes up, or I'll start a new subject, but we're still on the previous one, so . . . it's just the nature of a lagged conversation that things will be dropped and not sent in that manner.
Great study tho! Many insights on human behavior can be gained from all manner of conversations - and that is really interesting stuff.
says
12-08-2007, 03:16 PM Quote:
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