A great deal of my relationships with people are conducted from behind the computer screen, and my instant messenger of choice is Google chat largely due to the absence of dumb, animated emoticons. I like chatting with people online, but like my meatspace conversations, I have expectations. I don't mind if the person I'm chatting with checks out of the conversation or disconnects without warning, but I mind terribly if the person who messaged me to chat does little to keep the conversation going. Like this:
Someone: hey shryh
Shryh: Hi! how's it going?
Someone: good. u?
Shryh: Well, the city just stabbed me in the eye with a syringe and injected me with misery serum, but otherwise, I'm not too bad.
Someone: lol
Shryh: ...
Often, nothing follows "lol", as it's technically my turn at the conversation. But how the fudge do you expect me to respond to "lol"? LMAO? The next person to put me through this is going to get a TTYL.
