This post is could be dated in the 1990s when the IRC and ICQ first came up. Of course, in the good old days no one used msn, but now there's no other way to chat.

Sometime in the 90s began a critique of internet communication. Some people said that the idea of communicationn through the internet redefined human communication such that people became distanced from one another rather than closer. The argument was that electronic communication was simply not a substitute for real communication. It conveyed less than the telephone and even less than meeting up in person. We lost our ability to communicate with another party through regular channels, social skills were on the decline. I didn't believe what they were talking about at that point of time. I couldn't even see what was wrong with IRC, much less object to the critique. How can you argue against something you can't even see?

Now I think differently. Internet communication is bad. You know how there were these emails about the Bill Gates being the devil? It might just be true cause MSN is the purveyor of evil in this decade, more people use this chat engine nowadays than any otehr i know.

Firstly, your person is a facade on MSN. Are you really represented by little bits carried across your contact list? Or are you represented by that little picture you have beside your chat window when you talk? It would be an insult to say that the sum of all those little things are all that you are. If you cannot be represented by all which MSN has to offer, then what you present on MSN is not you. Your imagine on MSN must be a false representation of yourself. MSN allows you to change your nickname frequently and I suspect that some people use this facility to shamelessly advertise themselves to their contacts. I am a book not a rolling quotation. So i believe that MSN is incapable of projecting a true image of a person dispite being equipted with the best facilities any chat engine has to offer.

What does falsehood create? A buffer zone. It allows you to hide behind an MSN persona, a restricted representation of yourself. You don't need to commit to the exposure which facial expressions, tone of voice and awkward pauses in conversation create. It is the ultimate tool for the modern generation. Non-commital chatting. No commitment of your true self is required past your nick and a photo, which needn't even be your own. We all feel insecure about ourselves in some way or another. A buffer zone is the perfect method keep out of reach from the other party in a conversation, all insecurities. Its safety we seek. The security to hide in an increasingly critical world, the self. What is sex and the city, if not 4 women cricising society, relationships and men. what are magazine pictures, if not criticising you for not being glamourious enough. We all want to be fabulous and glamourous, but if you're not, what does hiding on MSN say about your tenacity?

Finally, the effect on human interaction. The thing with proper face or voice interactions is simply that you have no where to hide. You do not have the luxury of the buffer zone, of not replying or blocking someone from your contact list. It doesn't happen in the same way. You are forced to deal with all your insecurities in public and when you can't you clam up and wish you were on MSN with your 'friends'. Question: Are they your friends because you're actually comfortable with them or are you more comfortable with the buffer? This is the death of human interaction, the death of the full representation of your self. In the end, we don't know how to deal with who were are in the face of other people and seek to hide behind something. We have become fully dependent on the keyboard and the screen to create barriers. Barriers to friendship and interaction because we start to create these barriers which don't come down until we have somewhere to hide.

Final comment: How many hours do you spend on the internet? Why in the world is this time not better spent hanging out at someone's place or chatting with that person you somewhat know down the corridor? Maybe there's some truth in all of this afterall.

Note: Author does use MSN, but to supplement interaction cause some people just live so damn many miles away.