It has been about 8 years since I last touched mIRC. That was when I was younger; not that long ago. Let me ask the guys a question. Have you ever put your nickname as a girl’s? Take for example you are Andrew and your nickname on mIRC reads “lonely gal”. Boy, I guess that most of us are guilt of this. I blush, and raise my hand to this question too.
Oh wells. This mIRC has now evolved to MSN messenger. What were the causes for the change to MSN? Personally, I felt that MSN was much better because it allows me to just chat with my friends. Instead of going to a common room or server to look for friends in mIRC, MSN has made it much more personal and convenient.
Another strong factor was that MSN allowed mass conversations to go on with multiple people at the same time. This helps to facilitate on-line meetings and the sharing of ideas. It also makes on-line conversations more interesting and dynamic.
MSN Messenger
mIRC
Internet chatting has been playing a very significant role in our lives. There are many people in developed countries who cannot live for a week without computers. Many of which use the computers to chat and discuss things on-line. This has been a global phenomenon. So essential that it has caused many to be addicts of on-line chatting.
Was I guilty of staying up for long hours to chat on-line? It happens quite a while, as and when I am free and at home. Some take on-line chatting to a level of addiction. They would rush home immediately after school or work to chat with their friends who are on-line.
Technology is advancing at a very fast rate. It seems that the current version of MSN 8.5 was released in November 2007, but there is already a newer version of MSN 14.0 that is planned to be released later this year. There are much more cool features and nicer animation and backgrounds. The fact that is going to be revamped would grant the users of the older versions of MSN messenger to be obsolete and seen as old fashioned.
You might be screaming, “HEY! That’s so unfair!” People would just give you a smile and persuade you to get on with life. It is time to get yourself updated with the world. The pace of life is ever increasing, thanks to the advancement in technology. It is making the world a smaller and faster paced place to live in. There are no more dinosaurs living on the face of earth. For goodness sake, get updated!
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iuhiq said
i do agree that MSN now become a part of many people live including me. When i switch on my com, i would log in to MSN. Even if i am busy, i would still log in, however, the status is offline. It become a norm to log in for many of us.
However, i feel that although the world is changing fast, we still need to meet people face to face. Being just in a cyber world isn’t really good for a person, the person may then not know how to talk to a person when they see them or even feel uneasy.
iuhiq said
Internet message become a thing where most people now cannot leave without. When they switch on their computer, the first thing is to log in to messenger regardless or which messenger they are using. IT is getting faster and faster and i agree that messenger is a tool for convenience communication.
However, i still think that one should not just rely on the savvy world. One cannot just chat online and not meet up face to face. I feel that there are some misunderstanding when chat online. One cannot see their verbal expression and word and only tell that much. The person can only imagine what the other side is trying to express.
iuhiq said
Internet message become a thing where most people now cannot leave without. When they switch on their computer, the first thing is to log in to messenger regardless or which messenger they are using. IT is getting faster and faster and i agree that messenger is a tool for convenience communication.
However, i still think that one should not just rely on the savvy world. One cannot just chat online and not meet up face to face. I feel that there are some misunderstanding when chat online. One cannot see their verbal expression and word and only tell that much. The person can only imagine what the other side is trying to express.
Chongx said
yes there is definitely pros and cons when it comes to evolution of technology. But i guess in this case, there are way more pros than cons. As the saying goes, only the strong survive and if we refuse to catch up with technology, we ourselves will eventually be left out. Just look at handphones for example, it used to be a luxury item in the 90’s but now it’s a necessity already. The list can go on but i am sure glad this evolution is happening XD
Y S Soh said
evolution is quite apt here. and this generation certainly belongs to “youtube” and “facebook”. in a way, its already threatening to dethrone msn.
and i’ll agree that there’s always a constant pressure to stay updated with the new media, eg facebook profile, just so that you keep in touch with the world. its not uncommon to see politicians with a facebook profile..
having said that, the lack of privacy does make people a little uncomfortable. haha oh well
sy said
In a way it’s true. It’s scary how MSN is becoming so ubiquitous and such an integral part of our lives. I mean it’s difficult to imagine using a computer without first signing in into MSN Messenger. It tends to make you feel disconnected and perhaps lonely when you can’t see your friends online.
But it’s worrying too when you think about how new forms of communication like MSN influences the way we speak to each other. Acronyms like “Lol” and “Gtg” among other popular short-forms are now flung around in daily conversations without a moment’s consideration. Typing messages online in that little window also takes away much of the meaning and substance of a good conversation. There’s no tone, no inflection, no pleasant sound of laughter and no spontaneity especially when you are talking to a bunch of people all at once and you can’t respond as fast you like to.
I admit that MSN messenging has taken root in our lives but I’ll prefer a proper conversation anytime.
andy said
Anything that has got to do with technology, do not stagnate long. It requires effort and a deep wallet to sustain or even keep up with ever-changing standards. The bewildering surprise is, people today are more than willing to do so. It is like integrating such technologies into our lifestyle. People feel the need to blog, compelled to post pictures on Facebook, constantly updating one’s virtual existence. Sad to say without that, the world will have a massive void to fill.
Jassy said
Definitely, I belong to your age group. 🙂
Besides mIRC, we had ICQ which we can also talk to strangers.
Advancement in technology has allowed us to interact with our friends through the Net. In the past, we used to write letters, sending mails to our friends, phone-calling to our friends. But with all these chatrooms and instant messengers, it allowed us to interact with our friends online. There are pros and cons. We can get to send email to our friends and get a faster reply. Everything is so convenient for us and we can reach our friends by a few clicks.
Like what sy mentioned in the comment, “Typing messages online in that little window also takes away much of the meaning and substance of a good conversation.”.
True!
From the instant messaging, we do not know the tone of the speaker, the mood he/she is having. It became hard for us to grasp one’s thinking. What we see on the screen is words without expression. This often lead people to misunderstanding.
I still prefer the old-fashioned way of face-to-face conversation.
Valmond said
woooo… I like using msn. it is a communication tool to catch up with friends that i dont communicate often! to me, msn is a better tool than irc as the former only allows u to communicate with people whom you know, and not just anybody. irc is so widely abused by perverts and sickos. haha wooo and dun you miss icq?
Zhezhang said
many people would prefer the use of msn over irc. In my opinion, both has their pros and cons. The reason why i say so is that although msn makes chatting more personal (and safe from perverts), it lacks the ability to chat with more people and to make new friends. As compared to irc (in the past), you cannot really make new friends through msn and more often than not you will be chatting with your own friends only. The use of irc in the past, despite its dangers, has its benefits as well. If you were to join a group called #gaming, for example, you can chat with people who are interested in gaming as well. I think that irc is very safe, as long as you don’t start to meet people. Unless, with the use of facebook and friendster, we can verify the stranger. Still, it has many dangers as well. Yet, if one wants to make more friends( real or cyber), one needs to take such risks.
Tristan said
actually nothing beats the in-your-face conversation experience. well you can say that MSN actually offers video chat, but how sure are you that your friend on the other side of the screen are not faking their expressions?
while on the other hand, the good thing that MSN and mIRC ( they are the basically the same ) is that they bring people closer together virtually. bonds are still being constructed thought not on the face to face level.
sometimes, for introverts, its good for them to know that they can actually have friends ( mostly online )
JuNyAo said
I definitely prefer MSN than IRC. It really allows me to chat with my friends ONLY rather than having some unknown stranger to come and ask me to introduce myself for unknown motive.
BUT at the end of the day, is still a technology to me. Too much of it takes away the personal touch.
Hong Mun said
Interesting read. Two fonts are used in the article.
yj said
Technological advancements has allow us to connect with the rest of the world. MSN not only allows us to chat with friends and family, who are staying in our own country but also those who are overseas. Personally, with MSN, i am able to catch up with friends who are studying in Australia. It gives us immediate response instead of having to wait for email reply, which has a high possiblity of being overlooked. It also saves us from spending lots of money from overseas calls. The additional features of MSN has also liven up the conversations.