Chat

How is chat used?

The act of chatting is a unique experience. Chatting with a group is quite fast paced. If you are chatting with one person then you need patience. After you send your message it takes time for the recipient to read it, think of a response and then type that into their message bar and click send. As the Internet connections have provided greater speed, the chat messages now physically arrive more quickly. The time delay between messages is now based on human response time.

The actual chat occurs in chat rooms. These can be found at unique addresses on the Internet or as part of another tool such as: instant messaging, social networks (e.g. Facebook) or online learning environments.

Chat was originally designed to provide an online meeting tool. One form of chat can be used for one person to 'speak' with a large group with questions filtered through a moderator.

Who uses chat?

Chat is still a very popular communication tool. Facebook reported in February 2009 that there were over 300 million chat messages sent each day.

Education departments provide secure monitored chat rooms and very specific guidelines provided by the Federal government for students and parents about chat use.

Since there is no video component in traditional chat, users can feel annonymous. In public chat rooms this has led to impersonations and the use of false identities with a falling away of ethics and moral code. A study (University of Maryland, May 2006) found that in public chat rooms female usernames received 25 times more threatening and/or sexually explicit private messages than male or ambiguous usernames.

Why use chat?

Mini Podcast: Lindsay Freeman retired principal of Ulladulla Public School recorded in August 2009.