“Too much is like not enough”

How do you feel about Instant Messaging? Its also known as Skyp’ing, MSN’ing, ICQ’ing, IM’ing.
Today’s craze is to have your IM open on your computer all the time. If you have teenage kids or work in a company, you know what I mean. IM is all the craze in school. Teenage girls and guys don’t have to go through the embarrassment of calling each other on the phone and getting some angry parents…(What, just because its midnight and the younger kids are asleep!). They now reach each other anytime they are connected without bothering a soul, or any parent knowing.
Same goes for work. Have you ever tried to get something done with your supervisor constantly bothering you with his/her latest “great idea”? Fellow ICP’ers, I do mea culpa here as I am one of the greatest users of IM for work. And when you turn it off, we wonder where you are!
All to say that I’m not so sure that IM is the “greatest thing since sliced bread”. Sure the instantaneous nature gives you an answer immediately, but isn’t that perhaps the greatest challenge? What if the teenage boy isn’t ready to say “I love you too” at that moment? I supposed the challenges remain the same no matter the communications medium. How do you differentiate “what’s urgent” from “what’s important”, if “what’s urgent” is constantly nagging you through IM?
I need to learn to lay off it, and to not use it for ANY topic which is too serious. Frankly, I’m just starting to appreciate how un-productive and sometimes downright destructive it can be. And if we are challenged in such ways, how about our kids? How could they possibly control themselves better than us?
As my wife often has told me, “too much is like not enough”. I suppose this applies to the instant communication craze as much as anything (including solar blogs!). Well, maybe not chocolate cake. That should be an exception from EVERY rule in my opinion.
Sass