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By TOM ZUCCO, Times Staff WriterAt least 70 percent of those age 12 to 17 turn to instant messaging for chats with friends or relatives, America Online says.
ST. PETERSBURG - The messages pop up in a box in the upper right corner of the screen, and they're programmed to arrive with the standard chime.
But that's, like, so two years ago.
The savvy senders replace the chime with a knock, a groan, a cow's moo, even the opening notes to Madonna's Like A Virgin. There are hundreds of choices.
Rob Scott, 17, props his feet on the cluttered desk in his bedroom and leans back in his chair. With his keyboard balanced on his lap, he begins the morning discourse.
Somewhere in the city, DMNMShow74 notices Scott has just logged on.
Bllllling
DMNMShow74: yo
Ga8orguyXX: wud up
DMNMShow74: bored as ---- at my house
Ga8orguyXX: lol u got any plans 4 2nite
DMNMShow74: work - hey i passed all my classes
Ga8orguyXX: including Ms Jones
DMNMShow74: yep made a c on her ex
The verbal gymnastics will go on like this for an hour and eventually include input from BikinibabeXX, BIGTymerXX, ASweetAngelXX and several more of the nearly 200 friends and relatives on Scott's "buddy list." (For the purpose of this story, teens either changed their screen names, or the Times has obscured part of the name.)
They will contribute to the more than 1.6-billion instant messages that are sent online each day in America.
To say the full name is to reveal a severe lack of cool.
That's because most of the people passing all these cyber notes are kids. Teenagers mostly, but some are as young as 7 or 8 years old.
According to a recent survey by America Online, the nation's largest online service, 70 percent of kids ages 12 to 17 years old use instant messaging to communicate with friends or relatives. And a quarter of all teens with Internet access say IMs are the main way they interact with friends.
"We definitely see an increase in traffic after school as students get home," said AOL spokeswoman Sheila Tran. "We even hear that they call their friends to say "go online.' "
Teenagers use IMs for everything from gossiping to homework collaboration. They like it because it's fast, convenient and adults haven't embraced it. That last factor sends IM's cool rating off the charts.
Scott, who will be a senior this fall at St. Petersburg High School, never took a typing class. But he flies through his IM replies without looking down at his keyboard. He is an honor student who, on this day, has football practice in the afternoon, a job as a busboy at night and chores around the house.
But he finds time to spend about three hours a day online.
"It's fast, you can talk to more than one person at a time, you can send pictures . . . ," he said. "This is just what most kids do. It's a great way to know what's going on."
And when you're 17, you have to know what's going on.
BikinibabeXX: who do u like thats not a cheerleader
Ga8orguyXX: 2 many
BikinibabeXX: just got home - went to lunch with my grandpa
Ga8orguyXX: kewl
BikinibabeXX: going out 2nite
Ga8orguyXX: working lol
BikinibabeXX: 2 bad ttyl
Instant messaging is an online service that lets users send short messages to others or participate in group chats, with a list showing which buddies are online.
America Online, Microsoft and Yahoo! give away IM software, and in a rush to cash in on IM mania, the world's three biggest cell phone makers - Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola - are working on a new generation of equipment that makes it easier to IM on a cell phone. The first new phones are scheduled to hit the market this summer.
So what of the lowly telephone?
Like the explosion in cellular phone ownership, IMs are another sign pointing to the end of the land line. To an increasing number of teenagers, telephones are becoming as useful as tribal drums or town criers.
Even e-mailing could be threatened. AOL estimates that by 2005, IMs will surpass e-mail as the primary way of communicating online.
As with everything online, IM has a dark side: spam is a growing problem on IM screens, and the music industry complains that people are illegally swapping music via IM.
But everything else pales in comparison to the problem of adults who prey on children.
FBI special agent Barry Maddox works in the bureau's Baltimore field office, which launched Operation Innocent Images in 1995. The program assigns agents to go online and pose as children in an effort to catch suspected pedophiles.
The unit, which recently made headlines when it enlisted the help of three teens to train agents in pop culture and teenspeak, has made more than 700 arrests since the program began.
Agents estimate that at any given time, 20,000 pedophiles are online worldwide, trolling for children.
"Parents need to be involved with their children," Maddox said. "Talk to them. Let them know the Internet is a great tool, but there are bad people out there.
"Also, parents should tell their children not to give out any personal information - their name, address, phone number - unless they know the person. And have the computer in a common area.
"You're not being a spy. You're just doing your job."
But what effect does IMing have on socialization, on how kids - especially teenagers - interact with each other?
Instant messages, experts say, make it easier for teens (especially boys) to make contact with someone of the opposite sex. And less humiliating if that person isn't interested.
Jamie Myers, 15, who is new to town and will be starting her sophomore year at Pinellas Park High School in the fall, said IMing can help ease the difficulty of being new at school.
"Shy kids who might not be that outgoing can go online and make friends," she said.
IMs can also help kids broaden their circle of friends. It can introduce them to kids from different racial, ethnic or economic backgrounds.
And for the time being, it's theirs.
"Speaking as a mother, kids often want to have their own things, and that's what this is," said Dr. Peg Burchinal, a senior scientist and research professor at the University of North Carolina's Child Development Institute.
Burchinal has a 15-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son. Both are frequent IMers."Whether it's that we're working, or safety issues, or that the kids are physically too far apart, our kids don't get together with their friends as often as we did," she said. "This lets them stay in touch.
"I would say it's not unhealthy. What I don't understand is how they talk to so many people at once. I just don't know how they manage that."
So does this mean kids will grow up to speak and write in clipped sentences?
2b r not 2b . . .
4score & 7 yrs ago r 4dads brot 4th . . .
Most experts say that, by far, the biggest influence on language development is face-to-face interaction. It's those with whom we live, work and play who determine how we speak and write.
"Since Plato, every generation has claimed that language has gone to hell in a handbasket because of something new," said Dennis Preston, professor of linguistics and languages at Michigan State University. "Even things in the modern world - telephones, cell phones, the Internet.
"But we just don't see any deterioration in the language. Everything that was supposed to have a disastrous effect on language, didn't. We have different modes of speaking and writing, one with friends, and one more formal. One doesn't drive the other away."
And if nothing else, Preston said, your child's typing ability will improve like magic.
Especially if they have a long buddy list.