Dan DaranciangThe creators of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) unleashed an intriguing beast when they developed away messages. They may have originally been a signal to others that the user was not there, but they have since developed into so much more.
The away message is a modern technological and social phenomenon. No generation has had more immediate access to each other than ours does. Although some AIM users don’t post away messages, it seems that the majority of students often check the messages of those who do.
“I think everybody checks,” said junior Tammy Schulman. “People are closet checkers – they act like it’s uncool to check, but they’re still checking.”
Washington University students generally use away messages to inform and entertain. Junior Ashwin Kumar’s away messages are usually whatever random thought he was thinking before he left his computer. They rarely stand for where he is or what he’s doing; he says that if people want to know about that stuff, they can call him. Instead, they can be entertained by his wit.
An example away message of his is “Insomnia is for hustlers,” one of his few regulars, which he puts up when he’s going to be up really late.
Freshman Taylor Dover, on the other hand, takes his away messages a little more seriously. He tries to make them particular and informative, so people know where he is and what he’s doing.
The kind of away messages that Dover speaks of are particularly helpful for friends near and far. Many students use away messages as a way to keep in touch with friends or wayward acquaintances sometimes without even having to talk to them – although, in Kumar’s opinion, that can be considered a little “stalkerish.”
Far from being a tool for stalkers, away messages are often innately social. For instance, away messages are often targeted at who you think will be reading them – most often your friends. Dover writes specific ones so his friends know what he’s up to.
Kumar said he once heard about a study which found that women often laughed more than men at jokes, whereas men responded better to witty one-liners.
“The majority of people I talk to online are guys with my same sense of humor,” said Kumar. “They like the one-liners.”
Schulman also writes for her audience, writing inside jokes to target her away messages at a particular friend in such a way that no one else will understand.
Not only are away messages meant as entertainment for specific friends, but they often serve as an outlet for creative self-expression. Many students quote song lyrics or adages to represent their mood. Some students put up their own philosophical musings on any topic imaginable or just some piece of information they thought was interesting.
Schulman has been quite creative with her away messages. Her friends from home actually participate in an ongoing game, in which they compete to say something funnier than the others so they will be featured in her profile (a more permanent extention of the away message). Whoever is in Schulman’s profile is the funniest and wins the game – it gets quite intense, she said.
Kumar thinks his away messages are sort of “weird,” but has often received compliments for them.
“A guy came up to me in the weight room and was like, ‘I really like your away messages,'” Kumar recalled. “But I really don’t put a lot of thought into them. I’m just a strange person.”
When people update their buddies on how they’re feeling, what they’re thinking and what they’re doing on a sometimes hourly basis, those who read their messages can get a portrait of a personality.
Strong emotions often reveal themselves in away messages, at least to good friends who can recognize the symptoms.
“If someone has Dashboard [Confessional] lyrics up, call them, because they probably need a friend,” advised Schulman.
Students say that patterns in away messages can reveal personality aspects. In Kumar’s case, people can tell he has a slightly random, quirky sense of humor because of the content of his away messages.
“If someone is really unhappy in a place, their messages are sad enough that you can tell,” said Schulman. “If people are always making jokes [in their away messages] you can tell they are a funny person.”
One can also discern more subtle and complicated personality characteristics through AIM away messages and profiles. Schulman has a friend who always has very happy, bouncy away messages, which reflect her personality. But at the end of her profile is little quote which shows a subtle sadness. On the other hand, some people insist on making even their sad away messages silly in order to dispell any assumptions of depression.
In order to keep up a good away message reputation, students stipulate a few etiquette tips. Many students agree that not putting up an away message is the biggest no-no. Another big one is using generic away messages that come with the AIM service.
“I expect something interesting and fresh from certain people,” said Kumar.
Dover and Schulman also dislike it when friends are overly dramatic with their away messages or use them to express their anger at specific people.
Otherwise, away messages are pretty much a rule-free open forum. They run the gamut of the modern experience, from homework to relationships to breakups to current events. But do they mean anything?
“It is interesting,” said Kumar, “because it really doesn’t matter in the long run or have any bearing in life what you put up in an away message. I just check because it’s a mindless thing to do on the computer and it’s nice to catch a glimpse of what someone is thinking right now.”
So next time a buddy posts “Just keep swimming,” he or she might be indicating something more than the fact that he or she is a huge “Finding Nemo” fan. Then again, maybe it doesn’t mean anything at all. It’s all in the way you type it.