MSNerd.

I hate MSN. and facebook. and myspace. and bebo.
Nahh, 'hate' is too strong.

But when I did my english exam a few weeks ago, it was like I had ignored EVERYTHING my primary and secondary school teachers had said about spelling and punctuation, and instead wrote in text language. I was reading through my answers at the end of the exam and I kept abbreviating everything, missed out capital letters and full stops, and wrote symbols (like @ and +) instead of words.

I blame myself. And a few people who bullied me into getting MSN.

I didn't actually get MSN until year 10/11 I think, while everyone else had it in year 7/8. But then Haz wrote a poll on her bebo saying 'Should Jen get MSN?'

The majority said yes. A few people, like Badminton Mike and my sister, said no. How right they were. I feel kinda anti-social, but MSN is such an amazing way to quickly contact people for free, and to get an instant response.

But I have had so many issues with it too (inc. the whole not-spelling-right thing)

And I'm sure everyone's had the same kind of issues.

-Writing messages about someone, and accidently sending it to that person? normally very embarrasing 'i want his babies!' sort of things.

-or having the same happen to you. normally bitchy.

-going a bit OTT and saying stuff you would NEVER EVER say to their face, even if you did have the guts!

-pouring your heart out to people who couldn't give a damn.

-or the worst, getting dumped. Prick.

If I am friends with someone, I judge that relationship by how much I talk to them face-to-face, how much I enjoy that time, how much I see them outside college, and how much I am able to tell them my secrets/say weird things to them without being inappropriate or without having them think I have special needs.

And then I have my 'cyber' friends. Friends and relatives I never see because we live too far away, or have different hobbies outside school.

But in some ways, MSN does really develop relationships, and make friendships stronger. You can be honest to people if you would normally be to shy to tell them face-to-face. Sure, I've been DUMPED over msn, but I've been asked out over MSN too. It seemed a bit of a cop-out to start with but it was the nest relationship ever.

It's just, the BAD things about MSN seem to counter the good. It distracts me from revision, it keeps me indoors when the weather is nice, it makes my eyes funny and gives me headaches if I'm online for more than an hour.

To conclude...

I don't really know what my judgement is about MSN. Sure, you can lash out at someone over MSN if you can't brave a proper confrontation. You can crush feelings by 'blocking' someone, or annoy by 'nudging' ALL THE TIME. (Tom. W!)


But you can also send emoticons, which can be SO annoying if you use them all the time, but can also convey how you really feel. It's good for shy people I guess. I've met a few people at college who are SILENT when I see them in lessons, but online it's like there are no embarrasments and limitations, and you can say whateveryou feel like (as long as you send it to the right person!)

I big up the MSN-ers who type normally, like 'Hello Jennifer, how're you today?' rather than 'YO J, sup?'

The latter is pretty much what the whole of my english exam looked like. If I hadn't looked through and changed it, I would be SCREWED.

:) off to see gemma now :) i miss herrr!!