27.6.07

Are you busy?

I think I have a theory here. Or perhaps an argument. You may even wanna call it an obesrvation. Or wutever!

I simply can't understand why people have the "busy" icon beside their name in an instant messenger. See, my argument is as follows:

1 . I find it quite unfathomable, when you have the busy icon beside
your name, in order to let others know that you're busy.

2. Because, I can have the symbol beside my name, and still be
chatting with people or surfing the net or doing something abolsutely
unconstructive. I'm not busy. But still have the world to believe I am.

3. Now, if you're really busy with something, so much so, that you arent
even in front of your computer, then the sign automatically changes to idle.
Which, I think, makes a lot more sense. Although it says idle, it only means
idle in chat. But busy with something else.

4. And finally, if you're really busy, have no time to respond to
messages and wish not to be disturbed, then why log into chat in the first
place??
I've always found this extremely difficult to understand. Anyone out there with a convincing argument?

14 comments:

Vivek said...

Sari..
When u get an answer for this...
please pass on to me too..

Anonymous said...

This is arguable. Though i personally dont resort to the busy status on chat, there were times at which i was thinking of doing it.

To be online on chat is not only for time pass like before. Now its also a major way of communication. We use msn messenger at work to communicate. The busy icon may make a casual chatter avoid sending messages to you. But someone who wants to leave a message can still do that. Most of the time i have seen people putting a busy status when they are online and doing a voice chat. Its just to let others know that he is busy and might not reply.

chethan shenoy said...

well saritha, i cant comment on this because i have never used any inbuilt status messages like busy etc, the only mesage i use is available and then my own so called creative lines as messages..

Saritha Rajagopal said...

Vivek etta, I don't think I'll ever get one. Let see though. ;)

Saritha Rajagopal said...

Umesh,

I wus expecting the argument you have posted in this regard. And I agree with you on this partially.

That's coz the people u r talking about must be a minority. I know several others who use it as a smoke screen. And to be honest, Ive tried doing it too.And dats exactly when I found the whole concept pretty funny.

And has putting a busy status beside ur name actually stopped people from sending you a msg?

Saritha Rajagopal said...

Chethan,

Ya, ive found all ur status msgs pretty interesting. Dats another nice way of getting people to chat with you. ;) A lot of status msgs invoke the curiosity of people and make them send you messages enquring about the same. I guess that's mostly our intention too. Right? ;)

Gastro Mallu said...

hmmm.....busy..wel according to me it someting wat i call a status of mind were dillemma comes in or shud i say utter clumsiness...wat else can i say....most of us log in at our office and obviously we have work in office and then y the hell do we log into Y! or MSN or Gtalk???? weird aint it??? aftr all wrk is wat feeds us and y do ya want 2 bite the hand that feeds???
The point of debate is that we feel "attached" to friends wile we feel "lost" work!!!
for it was the other way round then the "busy" icon would a the instant key to getting jacked!!!!
so in short we keep our attachmnts intact by tell them we are "lost" to work but at the same close to Y!/MSN?GTalk Buddies!!!!

WEIRD AIN'T IT????

Anonymous said...

Dear Saritha,

Being busy is a state of the mind. I could be busy at work, busy chatting to somebody else, busy with my thoughts or even busy dreaming about my next vacation. It has nothing to do with being constructive.

Now, about logging in to chat and being busy. You log in to chat to hang in there while you carry on with whatever else you are doing and not to wait and see who else is around to start a conversation...If you are in the mood for a conversation when a friend logs in, yeah, you may switch yourself from being "busy" to "Online" and chat. Otherwise you may just hang in there and be discreet and "busy" in your own space.

Nevetheless, I enjoyed reading your blog. You write so well...

Saritha Rajagopal said...

Hi Anonymous,

I've gone through ur comment in detail. And have one question to ask you.

What's your intention while you put a busy status beside ur name?

No matter what you're busy with, will u be willing to chat with someone when he/she comes online? Coz you've also mentioned that if you really wanna chat with someone who's online, you'd rather change ur status to available.

So then, wuts d whole idea behind the busy status?

And like u said, y wud u sign into chat just to hang in there?

I guess there are various perspectives to this concern. And everyone has a story to tell.

It's how each one sees it. And that's all Ive wished to find out. :)

By the way, thanks for the compliment. Glad you liked my blog. :)

Anoop Alias said...

Pretty nice smile u'hve got...
dont know if i will be bak...........
Keep it as a compliment ;)

sujit narayan said...

i feel it wrks whn u ve 2 avoid certain people with whom u really don wanna chat bt then don wanna say it on their face.. its lke playing safe as u cn always tell em later that u were busy n thats y u cldnt reply.. i feel theres nthing wrng wth it as long as u not worried about the moral part of chat business... i usually log on in invisible mode on yahoo but on gmail theres no sch option..

aaremm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
craving to love life said...

the anonymous comment does make sense,...imagine a guy hu logs on to chat wid hi gf,...the only thot in his mind is to chat wid her widout any disturbance,...so he puts on the busy signal,...but on the other hand if he's got sum sense, he'd've changed the msg to something els also,...lik chattin wid gf, o connecting wid luv o wateva,....so i agree 60%wid u and 40%wid anonymous,...

Vik Rajagopalan said...

I was meaning to write this and I guess Anonymous guy just took the pie away from me. But i can answer that question of yours. You see, I can still put up the Busy thing against my name and still be doing nothing. perhaps waiting for someone special. And when I do, I might end up either busy chatting with her or get roasted alive. However it is, isn't there supposed to be some kind of a free space where you get to do what you want to do? I mean, why do you think it has to be availble all the time? I mean if the guy is committed then it surely does not make sense to look at that as Available ! but I can :-). So I guess, it depends which end of of the spectrum you are in. But it was a good argument and as always I won :-)