IM also helped
overcome shyness in broaching difficult topics with friends
and facilitated online flirting. Some young girls played with
group IMing and flirted with boys whose handles they
learned through mutual friends. Though romantically
immature, they showed humor and a healthy skepticism of
online identities. Younger teens had more “time to kill” and
were satisfied with a lower depth of interaction. Older teens
had less free time but more direct access to friends (cars,
cells); many said they IMed much less than they did when
younger. This decrease in IM use with age may reverse
when teens go to college and are online more, since they
have more financial constraints and more remote friends.
These teens were not the hyperactive multitaskers often
portrayed in the media. Some said they have IMed with as
many as 4 or 5 people at once [3], but 1 or 2 was more
common, especially with age. Delays in IM responding
were seen as rude if attributable to multitasking. Teens
might keep several IM windows open and listen to music
while doing homework, but then focus and stop IMing
when they needed to concentrate. Buddy lists had from 1
to 90 contacts, typically consisting of a few (~5) core
friends contacted often (perhaps via multiple “handles”),
several infrequently contacted remote friends and
acquaintances, and often many others they could no longer
identify. Lists tended towards minimal or no organization.
AOL’s IM (AIM) universal; a few used other IMs as well.