Rhi Axtell – Writer

Back in the early 2000s, I used to spend my nights online using MSN messenger, chatting with all my friends.

That piece of information probably reveals how old I am and which generation I belong to.

Anyway, MSN. An online messaging service which gave me my first experience of communicating online. I remember bright colours, different fonts, emotional quotes pasted underneath profile names. Weirdly, I don’t actually remember what MSN stood for…

I would sit down every night in front of the screen, watching my friends’ list, waiting for the little circle next to their name to turn green and signal that they were online. Then we could chat about the day, send jokes, gossip about who liked who, stuff like that.

Oh and talk about games, of course. Some things never change. I played a lot of RuneScape at the time.

Side note: Did you ever play RuneScape? Remember how people used to be looking for ‘Girlfriends’ and ‘Boyfriends’ in game? What did that even mean? I wonder if any of these online relationships ever blossomed into something beyond exchanging gold and in-game items. What a strange time.

Those were the peak days of my online communication. I think since then, even with the boom of social media, my online presence has decreased. I’ve slowly backed away, like a hermit crab retreating into its shell.

Yes, I have this blog and a spray of different online profiles, but I don’t really feel comfortable messaging online anymore. It doesn’t come as easily as it once did. I stumble over my words. I’m always wondering if what I say will be taken out of context. Tone is really hard to convey in an online environment. This is further compounded by the fact that I like to write in full sentences, not short hand.

And the fact that I say things like ‘this is further compounded by the fact.’ Yeesh.

I annoy people because I rarely answer messages. I annoy myself. But hey, there is always email. Ironically, I would probably answer quicker if people contacted me that way.