Thursday, February 19, 1998 at 10:56:29

With the advent of the internet,  live communication via irc and chat groups has increased herolded a new form of communicating - for those who can type or keyboard.   I met a new friend on irc who, interestingly, used filled pauses in his typing. He would fill in pauses, literally, by typing, "um.."  and "well" When I met him in person, sure enough, he sprinkled his conversations with um..'s. A bright person, mathematically, and very verbose.

- CL

Your friend sounds interesting.  I can't imagine doing that under normal circumstances.  However, I do remember my college writing preofessor having us do "Stream-of-consciousness" writing.  During a few moments there I felt like the though stream from my brain to mouth had been diverted to my writing hand and the pace of thought-processing was synchronized with my writing speed.  I wonder if experienced 'chatters' reach this sort of communicative ideal?  If so, it would not be surprising then that they also develop 'pausing' strategies--although most probably just lift their fingers from the keyboard...

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