Here at eWEEK, e-mail is our prime communications medium. In fact, we probably over-use it. (If you're e-mailing the guy in the cube next to you, you're e-mailing too much.)

In the last, oh, two years or so -- as everything has become more immediate -- we've also become big instant messaging users. Most of us, that is.

I'm kind of chatty by nature, and so I was initially enamored with IM. But I've grown to loathe the messaging medium -- for reasons both professional and personal.

First, the professional reasons.

When I am "present" on IM, I'm less productive in my job. Sure, it's great for me to see, say, that one of the Labs analysts is online, and to then be able to ask him or her a quick question about a review or something. But, the problem is, it's never a quick question.

An example of how one of our exchanges might go. (Handles have been changed to protect the guilty.)

EDITOR: Hi! You on?
ANALYST: Hi. Yeah.
ANALYST: [While I'm typing the question I want to ask]. Can you believe Sanjaya got voted off?
EDITOR: [Trying to type the question about the review, but now eager to share her insight into AI.] I'm so glad. I was afraid LaKisha would be gone, as country week was Mandisa's undoing. Oh, and how's that review coming?
ANALYST: Yeah, LaKisha is good, but she's got to lighten up.
EDITOR: Yes, she totally does. Now, about that review ...
ANALYST: [While EDITOR was typing the last IM] Yeah, did you hear there's a big hole in that product we were talking about yesterday?
EDITOR: Er, no. How's that review coming? ...

And so on, and so on.

Then there are the long goodbyes.

EDITOR: Well, I should get going now.
ANALYST: OK. It was good talking to you.
EDITOR: It was good talking to you, too.
ANALYST: Have fun editing my review.
EDITOR: OK. I will. Well, bye.
ANALYST: Bye. What are you doing this weekend?
EDITOR: Uh, I don't know. Well, I really should get going. I hope you have a good weekend.
ANALYST: You, too.

And so on, and so on.

(And, I didn't even include the time it takes to pick just the right emoticon to illustrate the message at hand.)

I work with really great, interesting people, which is probably part of the "problem." But I also found that I was starting to get resentful about being at the mercy of that blinking IM icon in my task bar. Yes, I know I could ignore it, but I have very little will power.

In fact, I have to turn off the sound on my system so I won't be audibly queued when an e-mail comes in through Outlook. I'm like Pavlov's dogs -- when that little blip sounds, I must see what exciting e-mail has come in.

I promised I'd give you my personal reasons for railing against IM, and I know you're waiting with bated breath: I have a tweenage and a teenage daughter, and they're both into IM. Their time on the computer is limited, but if they're on, they're probably IM'ing.

It's nice that my kids can talk to their friends on such an ad hoc basis, but I'm pretty old school when it comes to language, and I can't stand what IM has done to it. In fact, on the rare occasions when I am on IM at work and my kids send me an instant message from home, I drive them crazy by using complete sentences, correct punctuation and, yes, actual words.

In addition, I keep a pretty close watch on what my children do on the computer, and, when I'm POS, I seem to see "conversations" consisting of nothing more really than Kewl! and K!

Am I being an old fuddy-duddy? Is IM a great workplace productivity enhancer that I'm just too weak to handle?

Maybe, but TTFN.