Hm, good question.
First of all the telephone costs. And although the telephone costs for have been lowered (some operators charge nothing after 7PM), a lot of people have discountinued their regular phone service and only have mobile phones.
Also, I like to chat on MSN while doing a lot of other things. While working for school, checking e-mail, checking forums, just surfing or sometimes while I'm half wathing television.
And I can also chat with different persons at the same time, whether or not in one group window. Also, it's less forward. Hm, it's hard to explain, but I'll try. Although I'm good friends with certain people, I don't just phone them when I feel like it. I also wouldn't want to bother them. But if I see one of my friends/classmates is online, I am not too shy to click on that peron's name and start talking. If that person feels like talking, we can have a conversation, but if that person doens't feel like talking the conversation will fall silent and that's okay. Also it's easier to say that you're busy or are just going away, then when someone calls you, I guess. And if you call someone, you ask for a lot more attention then when you that person via MSN.
Also there's just something nice about lying in bed before sleeping, with my laptop on my stomach and reading fan fiction or whatever I'm doing. And then a good friend comes online and starts talking to me. It's nice to find someone to talk to, even when it's after midnight. And I've had a lot of hilarious conversations on MSN. And I guess also more flirtatious conversations
. And typing the words and watching them appear on your screen, can be quite different than talking on the phone. You can make better use of puns, or intentional humorous spelling errors... And you can read stuff again for better context.
Lol, I'm typing way too much! My point is that online chatting is quite different from phone conversations, but you're right, I hadn't thought of Lois and Clark just talking on the phone. But when they both can't sleep and don't want to wake each other, they can get online and see that the other is awake as well
And of course, it could also be a generation difference. I don't know how old you are, but I'm 21 which is still pretty young. And of course, personal preferences also make a difference. I'm kind of an internet junk
Now I'm going to take a look at that suggested story, I hope I haven't read it yet
After that, I'm going to study some more for my exam about online communities
EDIT: I just read the story. I had already read it a few years ago, but I still enjoyed it (again). Thanks
