Chat rooms are usually on the internet or on online servers where two or more people can communicate using primarily text, but in some cases audio and visual too. There are hundreds of different chat rooms ranging from friends having informal discussions / chats to ones which have a specific topic or subject where people from all over the world can talk to each other.
Messenger services are similar to chat rooms in terms of instant chat but are primarily used from one-to-one group conversations between people who know each other. The most popular messenger service is probably Windows Live Messenger (commonly called MSN).
IRC – Internet Relay Chat. Again, this is similar to both chat rooms and messenger services in terms of it being a real time chat system on the internet. IRC’s are mainly used for group conversation and chat rooms are refered to as ‘channels’. The difference is that IRC’s are created by operators or admins who have control over the channels.
I have used both messenger service and chat rooms in the past, however I rarely use them now. After experience with both, I prefer messenger services to chat rooms as I find them easier and favour the fact you can choose your contact list so only friends are available to chat to.
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When researching IRL, i found if difficult to find a meaning. I noticed Emma had found 'Internet relay links' so i researched this but kept coming across the term 'Internet relay chat', which is why i have defined this in my post.
ReplyDeleteDo you think any of these are of higher importance than the others? or are they all on a par?
ReplyDeleteI find that some are used more than others, but this doesn't necessarily make them more significant than those that are used less.
I don't think that any of these have a higher importance over the others.
ReplyDeleteHowever, saying that im not a frequent user of any of these forms of communication so i have an inexperienced opinion!
I personally feel that messenger services are probably more important because of safety. Usually with messenger chats you have to already be accepted as a friend to talk to someone.
ReplyDeleteThis means that such software’s like MSN, are safer for children to use. I am speaking about this with experience to both MSN and chat rooms from when I was younger. When I was about 12 I would log in to chat rooms pretending to be a lot older than what I was, silly at the time but I didn't see the dangers back then.
Messenger services and chat rooms are probably still on the same par as each other however; as more software is being made safer chat rooms are morphing into messenger services.