Wednesday, August 6, 2008

weChat



Like many things Apple makes, iChat is a godsend.


Particularly in the open office environment, a working configuration that seems to be all the rage these days, privacy is hard to come by. Sneaking a nasty remark to a fellow co-worker is not a simple task. Discussing the nerve your boss had to call you out in that last meeting will lose its impact if you wait too long to report it. The watercooler is no longer a desirable communal area in which tales of the past weekend or the details of juicy office gossip are exchanged. Whispers in the work place are always indicators of nefarious activity, conspiracy, or disgruntled employee anarchy.

Enter iChat.

This simple communication device provides a wealth of relief in an atmosphere that can be teeming with tension and unspoken anxiety. The discussions are trivial but endlessly valuable. Private and relatively untraceable, they are your bitter thoughts put into broken English and incomplete sentences, communicated instantaneously to a trusted recipient.

It's the kind of system that provides reasonable solutions for the sorry characters in pre-IM films like Glengarry Glen Ross and Clockwatchers. Yet, who would have thought it would ever be nice to bring those cubicle walls back?