Several people are typing...

8 August 2024

I use the chat system Matrix regularly. For something so distributed and open I continue to be amazed how well it all works. My account is hosted by a friendly fellow across town whom I don't actually know very well and it's absolutely endearing to me how the server goes down when the power goes out. (Then syncs back up because, well, Matrix.)

Still, every now and again I'm drawn back to irssi and IRC for a while. Many Matrix rooms are bridged so I can talk to most people either way. It's outdated and outclassed but it's always so outrageously comfortable. I can point to various explanations—nostalgia for IRC sessions in years past, the professional joy of simple and efficient protocols, licence to go AFK rather than tethered to a smartphone, the super-fast clients with native UIs.

They're all valid enough but if there's one difference in IRC that actually elicits a sigh of relief from me then it's this: typing indicators and read receipts.

They aren't there.

Thank the heavens. Finally we can chill and just chat without all this pressure.

Surely it's not just me? Putting my life on hold while my brain churns, trying to anticipate what the next message will be, deriving hints from how long it's taking, watching if there are any pauses, re-reading what I just said to make sure it wasn't too dumb.

Then once I hit send, waiting to see who's watching. Oh, that person who uses a lot of reaction emojis saw it and didn't react. Not good enough, write a better message next time. Damn it all, now the group chat has its own Twitter-dopamine hedonic treadmill.

Well I'm sure it's not like that for everyone. It's not like I always had this ridiculous sort of thought process. Social media is a helluva drug, particularly microblogging, and now it's hard not to overthink things even in simple chat scenarios.

It reminds me of the notion that the internet has bamboozled our collective brains with its rapid context-switching, infinite scroll and notifications and now many people find it difficult to read a full chapter of a book without getting distracted partway through. In this case the solution is clear enough—take more breaks from the internet and practise reading the dang book until the brain gets itself straight. I know this works because I had to do it myself a few years back.

I suppose that's going on when I fire up irssi. Partly it's for my own good. If I don't have those UI indicators then I can't get worked up about them. Some time away means they're less likely to enthrall me later, or I'll at least recognise anew how beguiling they are and try to distance myself mentally. But it's partly also nostalgia for when nobody had those UI elements.

Sometimes you go to type something and think better of it. Or you spend 10 minutes composing a message and then delete most of it. Far out, now some people know. Which ones though? Well, we're not entirely sure because we haven't quite got to the point of read receipts for typing indicators but I'm sure a startup will be founded on this concept before long.

We used to have rapid fire conversations—who needs a full stop key when you can just press enter? And if you really want someone to know that you read something you just type "lol". Easy done.

Best of all, lurking on IRC is actually private. If there's a spicy argument going on and my little icon is flitting down to each new message as they arrive I'm half expecting the enraged participants to stop and have a go at the bystander. I find myself doing weird things like keeping the window visible and unfocused so I can read along without suspicion.

Before anyone sends me a tirade about open source, I'm aware that Matrix has a plethora of clients and I'm free to use or write a program that acts like an IRC user, in which I'm only active at the precise moment I send a message. True enough, but it's not just a Matrix thing, and I'm pretty sure it's not just a me thing. It is my humble opinion that we're raising the stakes on text chat too high. Maybe we'd all be calmer if messages just happened when they happened? Email got one thing right at least.

Tom's Opinions Blog by Thomas Karpiniec
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