Instant Messaging becomes a mini social network

Lately my chat client has become somewhat of a business, social, friend, acquaintance network.I've been contacted by friends, business associates, potential colleagues, colleagues, family, bloggers, writers, journalists and marketing people via my Instant Message.

This is made all the simpler when I'm using my Macbook Pro as I use Adium which pulls in most of my IM accounts in to one simple to use application.

I am not stating that Facebook is dead, MySpace is a goner or that Blueworld is history. What I am stating is that I am in control of my IM and I like it.I like that I am not obligated to talk to people, and there are a lot of people, on my IM client. I can set my status to "Buggeroffleavemealoneorillthrowsomethingatyou" and people laugh. I also love the integration between my twitter client, Twhirl and my IM client.What integration? None technologically. But person to person IM and twitter work fantastically together. I post something on twitter, vague, true, false, rumour or opinion and within minutes I have 5 people on instant message asking me about it. I then choose whether or not to engage, how long the conversations last and that's that.I know that traditional social networks allow for this scope of choice; whether one is available or not. But for some reason it just seems different when it's more personal, more instant and over messaging only.I don't want to see how many friends this person has, how many pictures they've been tagged in what zombie ate them or what groups they have joined. I want to know they are either available, away or unavailable. Select the person to talk to, discuss, get in and get out.IM allows me to do this on my terms and think I like that.

Has twitter increased your one-on-one IM?

It has for me.Strange to think but it's true. Through twitter and my followers I've noticed whose interested in what I have to say (my twitter "followers"). For whatever reason the people following me are interested in my movements and my thoughts. The reasons are up to them and for them to know I suppose.But what I have noticed coming out of twitter and tweets is that topics of interest spark a lot more, people are more open and receptive to reading what you have to say. Even if it is only 140 characters. On many occasions recently I have been approached in private IM (instant message) chats to continue a discussion or debate that I posted or commented on via twitter.This is extremely interesting and I think might lend towards some people's thoughts about twitter being the next big thing. Let's all be honest for a second, and it's been said before, Facebook is great, MySpace did well but are people really still looking for mass communication all the time? I think not. I think something deeper is sought after. People are inherently looking for people. People to engage with, to talk to and debate with. This can take place one-on-one and that's why we have blogs, forums and social networks. But at the end of the day nothing beats one-on-one conversation, even if it is over IM.For me first prize involves a debate that launches on my blog and carries over to the "offline world". I enjoy it when i meet people in person and they comment on and discuss something that I've blogged about or tweeted.Simply put, personal recognition outweighs mass "Digg effect" sort of recognition, at least in my world. I like to know that SA Rocks has affected one person's perception of things. I like it when one person can discuss something I blogged or commented on. I like to know that my opinion matters for longer than one day and 60+ comments.Twitter has enhanced my integration with people on a personal level not a mass level. What do you think?

Do you laugh when you type "hahahaha"

I know that I don't always laugh when I type "hahahaha" on IM... do you?