Facebook IM Has Arrived

Facebook recently unveiled its new chat feature to the masses. As a Facebook user myself, I have been curious on how it would work and look since I first heard about its impending launch in February. These days my use of Facebook is done primarily on my iphone though which doesn’t benefit from the new IM; but I should add that I love the iphone version of the site. Today though was my first time really getting to play with the new tool and I have to admit my thoughts on it are mixed. However, my friends thoughts on it tend not to be!

First, on the plus side…A few of my friends who are Facebook addicts are of course loving the new chat feature! And it wasn’t more than two minutes when I logged in on my desktop that I was asked, “Don’t you love it? lol”. I agree that as an IM goes, it is very easy and a quick way to connect with Facebook friends who happen to be online at the same time. As a user who also doesn’t really use an IM of any kind (minus the occasional gmail chat for business), this will almost force me to use it when I am online and someone just happens to message me…but this leads me to the negatives.

On the downside, this IM practically makes you a user even if you didn’t want to ‘chat’ or have a ‘chat-tool’. In fact, I don’t mind if people see that I’m online and may feel to even drop me a line, but I am not always in a position to have a conversation. Of which, even the simplest conversations seem to last 30 minutes when instant messaging. A good friend of mine who happened to be the second person to message me complained of exactly this. As a writer and frequently on her computer, this new feature opens her up to chat requests all the time! I think even when she was chatting with me, so was she with three other people! As was I! Then it becomes work! And I know many of you know what I mean. So for her especially, it is going to take-away from the fun of using it. Plus, the other downside of this new IM is that it is once again showing that Facebook is moving away from its roots. It was originally designed to be a tool for college students to stay in contact and connect…and it was awesome in that regard when I first started using it as a college student. And I used it for school purposes. But now more than ever it is just becoming a distraction for its original base. Many people today complained that while they should be doing homework they were of course ’stuck on Facebook’. Now, I am not blaming Facebook for their lack of discipline but I am going to throw it out there that this will certainly not help in most situations!

At the same time I will also admit that I am surprised this IM tool didn’t come out so much sooner. When Facebook decided to open up its doors to the whole world, not just college students anymore, and their direction changed, I would have thought this would have been part of that in the beginning. Even in a business sense, I have a strong feeling that this tool alone will up Facebook’s value so much as I see it becoming King over AOL and MSN Messenger. And the upside compared with those tools is you don’t have to download anything. Of course not everyone using the other options have Facebook accounts…but many do and it will certainly take out a chunk! And as I said, I have found it to be more easy and more simple than any other IM I have used. Although…the design leaves much to wonder; it doesn’t seem to fit with the overall look of Facebook.

So, we’ll have to continue to watch its impact. It certainly has garnered a lot of buzz. And made me an IM user…for now.