Online chatting in many ways has bypassed the email as a form of day to day interaction over the internet. Now email is only used for very long messages or when sending attachments. Online chatting sites are designed in such a away that they facilitate the user to write in conversational way. The only difference is that the words here are in written form rather than in speech form. According to a survey the younger generation is likely to be more attracted towards chat rooms.



Getting started

First thing you have to do is to select the chat room that matches your personal taste. This is very important because there are large numbers of chat rooms available today, but the thing is that most chat rooms service a particular group of people with specific interests. These special interest chat rooms have people like bikers, rock music fans, doctors, engineers and other groups.

After choosing your chat room, the next thing you have to do is to get an ID and password. Your ID can also be your user name. Also in many sites you can also become a member through your email account. This will be helpful in case you want to sign to the chat room of your email service provider. Once you get in you can start chatting. In many cases you will find that chatting does not necessarily follow the topic, but you can send a private message to an individual member who is interested in a particular topic or you can choose to chat with the whole group. Now days many chat room services have started providing video chat services also.

Netiquette or net etiquette

Just like in the real world, in the cyber space also there are some rules to follow to maintain the decorum. Before you start chatting understand the rule of the site in which you are chatting. Don't write in a hurry because writing something that will hurt the feelings of other members can be a need less provocation. Do not ever get involved in an illegal activity like spreading rumors, sending spams and promoting something for commercial gains. If you know someone personally or by name in the group, do not bring up his name in the chat room and please do not bring in something totally out of the blue topic in the chat room.

Some important things to remember

You should keep in mind some important things before you start chatting. Do not give your personal information like mobile number, your real name, mailing address to other members of the group. Younger ones should keep this in mind as may be some one from the group is trying to be the person that he is not.

You should never agree to meet someone face to face after chatting on the internet. If you still feel that someone is trying to get too close you can always send the report to the moderator or administrator.