Issues with AIM

[Dr.Jekyl]

I get a huge amount of papers to write, which causes me to type on WORD a lot. When my friends and I write papers, we use AIM to compare work to one another, so whenever I write papers I am on AIM. When my girlfriend comes on AIM, I usually don't notice it, because I get absorbed in the homework. She hasn't said anything yet, but I think that she feels a little hurt that I almost never instant message her on AIM, and if she wants to talk to me, she always has to instant message me. I would talk to her about it, but it would probably be useless, as she would say that there is no problem, even if there really is one. Does anyone out there in cyber-space have any idea how I could go about this?

I don't want her to be hurt, especially not for something that I did. Any advice is great!

[Dregnought]

I use the AIM service, but i use trillian instead of AIM messenger. I suggest you give that a go, its alot more alertful.

[boredguy]

well im more of an msn person, but can u set ur status to 'busy' or 'away'? and give ur gf a call or smthin once ur done working..

[annieo]

There is an eye icon at the top of your buddy list. If you click on this it will make you invisible. You can still talk to the people you want to talk to but you will show as away on everyones buddy lists. You could also get a second name and use it when you are studying.

[novaseeker]

I would recommend just setting an away setting when you aren't able to IM, rather than using a second name (which is somewhat shady ... it's like you're avoiding someone). Just set your status to away and enter a message like "doing homework" or something like that.

[Kaia]

I think you should talk with her about your concern at the same time.

She can say it's not a problem, but it's still good to hear from the boyfriend that he worries. It shows he cares.

[ravenfox]

hello AIM alerts

and new AIM has invisible feature!

 

how do u make it through college !?

[ravenfox]

yeah!!! aim invisible!

[hopelesslee]

My boyfriend has been doing the same sort of thing, and I'd probably appreciate it if he mentioned that he'd noticed it might be upsetting me. Aside from that, after you've told her, you can either assume she believes you and keep doing that, or just put up an away message like the other people said. (only then you can't really talk to people about your paper...) I don't know, it's not that big of a deal, just make sure you talk to her a lot on the phone and in person so that talking on AIM isn't so important.