Kids use MSN Messenger service to communicate after school

"You can say things on line that you wouldn't say in person"

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By Tiina Rajamäki
     
      It’s plop, plop, and a little green anthropomorphic game piece appears in the lower right corner of the computer screen. Another one of the friends of Essi Kansikas, 15, has logged on to MSN Messenger.
      The programme allows groups of friends to chat with each other in real time while on line.
      IRC chats and message boards are also popular, but Messenger is the really big hit among Finnish kids.
     
Essi Kansikas, who lives in the village of Kantele in the eastern part of the Uusimaa region, is part of a group of 121 friends and acquaintances who are in a Messenger network. She has met them at school and through IRC chats. Plenty of her friends seem to have reached home after the school day, because 33 people have already logged on.
      The network has expanded at an even pace during the past year that she has been using Messenger. Now her friend Annika Kauppinen, 14, is sitting next to her at the Kansikas family computer, but even when Annika is at home in the village of Pukkila, the two increasingly keep in touch virtually.
      Neither of the two can imagine an afternoon without the Internet.
      "During our vacation in Lapland, I just had to use the computer in the hotel foyer. If the broadband breaks down at home I will go straight to the library computer", Essi Kansikas says.
      Both Essi and Annika can easily spend more than three hours on line each day, and most of the time is on Messenger. They also surf for information to help them with their school work. Neither can remember ever having borrowed books for the purpose.
      "I just did a report on Belgium for geography class", says Annika Kauppinen.
     
According to last year's data from Statistics Finland, young people between the ages of 15 and 20 spent an average one hour and 40 minutes on the Internet each day. This has probably increased since then.
      There are benefits for parents: telephone bills have gone down significantly. Essi and Annika no longer send nearly as many SMS text messages as they did before.
      The girls admit that people are easily hooked on chat, because they can discuss things on the Internet that they would not, or could not talk about while at school.
      "On the Internet we tell secrets. Sometimes we say things that we wouldn’t say in person."
      The proper use of smileys and other decorative icons in the text is an art form unto itself. Mastery of abbreviations is also important.
      Suddenly there is a buzzing noise from the corner of the room, and the computer screen vibrates. Someone is sending an urgent message, demanding Essi Kansikas’s immediate attention.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 18.5.2005

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TIINA RAJAMÄKI / Helsingin Sanomat
tiina.rajamaki@hs.fi