MTG Click is a new weekly column written by Milwaukee teenagers for Milwaukee teenagers!
What happens when daily life becomes too dull for 21st century American teenagers? They get online and chat with their friends, of course.
According to a December 2002 issue of the New York Times, nearly two-thirds of all Americans have access to the Internet at home. Teens who have the Internet at home are crazy about instant messaging.
IM allows personal online messaging to be transmitted back and forth almost instantaneously between friends on different computers. Internet providers such as AIM, AOL, Yahoo! or MSN make instant chatting possible. Rachel, a student at Milwaukee High School of the Arts, says that IM-ing is a "fun and easy way to keep in contact with your friends." But you have to know the lingo.
No one is cool online until plain English writing "iz" modified. Start by changing all s's to z's for ultimate coolness. ANNOY ALL & LEAVE YOUR MARK BY TYPING IN CAPS. Express your emotions with emoticons: e.g. " :( (sad) :) (happy) :-O (shocked) >:) (devilish) :P (silly) @->- flower <3 (love)."
But what if one is buddy-less? Worry no more thanks to IM programs known as chat bots. Chat bots are programs designed to "virtually" give onliners a buddy that chats back with them, minus any heartbreak. Your chat bot friend will never keep you waiting with a BRB (be right back) message while it runs to the kitchen for a snack. Chat bots remain online day and night, so there's always someone to talk to. In addition, they always write back without delay.
With chat bots and other related programs, human relations aren't needed for online fun! Simply download a bot from your favorite instant message provider, and you're in chatting mode.
Some teens say they've even experienced an Austin Powers model chat bot that might respond "Groovy baby" when asked "How are you today?" Other bots are trained to soothe your emotions and help you bounce back to life, even after a bad breakup with your significant other. More recent models of chat bots are being developed to break the barriers that divide one bot's conversation from another's.
Pretty soon chat bots will communicate amongst themselves and begin their own Internet colonies! They'll be so well developed that the phrase "artificial intelligence" will take on a whole new meaning. Unlike a forgetful human mind, online chat bot buddies will retain the ability to remember everything about you! (Now that's what I call loyalty). But are chat bot practices worthy of being incorporated in online human activity? Are chat bot "pals" something you'd want to tell your every secret to? "Yea right...,lol (laugh out loud)," types Kim, a senior at Riverside University High School. "It's fun to mess with the bot... but you can't really engage in a good discussion with it."
Older versions of chat bots were programmed to recognize sentence structures and phrases, whereas newer versions are programmed to actually understand intricate content. Some newer versions of chat bots pose as information sources. Their duty is to bring you 411 (information) off the Internet that you might not be able to access right away. For example, if you wanted the weather forecast in Tokyo, certain types of chat bots could tell its user Tokyo's current weather status and Tokyo's complete weather history (if needed). There are a million and one tasks that chat bots can perform.
Whether onliners are aware of it or not, chat bots influence thousands of online activities, but mainly for instant messaging purposes. Chat bots are certainly advancing rapidly, however, complete domination over Internet networks are far from reach. Get them before they get you!
