Chat, Instant Messaging and SMS

Short Message Service or SMS is a form of sending short brief messages usually via mobile phone and is now a preferred way of communicating over phone conversations. You can type on the phone's keypad a small message e.g. "Hi, how are you?" and then send this message to any one of your contact phone numbers. This is a good way of quickly and also discreetly gaining information from a contact without needing to call the contact which may take up time and the contact may not be able to speak at that time. The only disadvantage of SMS is that if you lose signal, just like with a phone call, you are unable to send your message and gaining signal might take long periods of time. Also it is not as instant as a phone call as some people may not notice the message, as you would a phone call and you are also limited to how many characters you have to write your message.

Instant Messaging (IM) and chat is now available to many social networking sites such as Bebo and Facebook, where you can instantly send messaging

 using your keyboard to a contact. Skype also offers a service where you can both video and voice call as well as IM a contact online, which is amazing feature brought in during 2003. You can also have web-based chats offered by ISPs such as MSN and Yahoo, website-based chat usually found on ISPs such as Virgin and Sky, where you can speak to someone about a specific problem you may be having, private chat rooms online or even by chat rooms on a mobile using SMS. It allows two or even more people to have their own private conversations without other unnecessary people to see as well; the simplest IM services are just between two people, but more advanced IMs allow up to maybe 10 people to converse simultaneously as well as sending images and even files across to each other.

It is used for social purposes and is very popular amongst young people. It allows you to again chat to anyone you want, without a limited amount of characters also well as the fun option to use emoticons to show your emotions whilst conversing. You may also remain anonymous which means your name and any information about yourself cannot be seen which is an interesting feature. IM's name also suggests it can be more instant than SMS, receiving replies quickly. But again it has limitations of needing to be online, with your contacts also being available to chat. Sometimes the sites may crash and you may lose your current conversation or any text you were typing which can be frustrating. The anonymous feature also can promote online bullying as the identity of the bully is not shown and this is an example of cyber bullying which is difficult to track and stop.