MNSBC has an interesting article on the whole culture of a feature of Instant Messaging, Away Messaging, this generation’s automatic way of telling online buddies, when the sender’s not online, where he or she is. The article features many examples of what college kids post, and how they can catch up with each other this way. Below are a few quotes from a psychologist, a professor and our very own Howard Rheingold.

– Away messaging is the perfect tool for a generation that, in psychologist Bradford Brown’s view, is “very free-flowing and flexible in plans to go places and do things.”

“Two generations ago, when we were young, you had to have things laid out by Tuesday or you were in trouble,” the University of Wisconsin professor says. With this generation, “nothing is clear-cut until an hour or two before. It’s easy to miss where to go.” Away messaging “lets people know ‘I’ll be back in this period of time.’ It’s a way of saying, ‘Don’t leave me out, I’ll get there.’

– “In the early days of Internet communication, social scientists warned that it might replace face-to-face contact and that we’d all be worse off. They’re now rethinking that. Susannah Stern, assistant professor of communication at Boston College, has researched the phenomenon extensively among young people. “I haven’t seen one study that [IMs and AMs] have done anything but enhance social relationships,” she says.

– “Ten years from now, 15-year-olds will be 25,” Howard Rheingold says. “There will be more of a connection among them and more of a difference between them and their elders. We’re looking at the beginning of something.”