the etiquette of saying "What's up" on MSN
 

let us begin....

If you message me first on MSN, the onus is on YOU to start the conversational topic. So if you message me first by asking me "hey what's up?", I don't have any obligation to you to save the conversation you just started. This is because I never asked for the spotlight to begin with. Thus when you start the MSN conversation by asking me "hey what's up?", here are my 3 options of response, starting from the most assertive to the least:

1) I can flatly ignore you and continue what I was doing. This is MSN and don't take it personally. If you really wanna know, call me up or COME SEE ME!

2) This one is my favourite. Because you messaged me with something hollow, I'm going to use the boomerang effect on you and send it back to you for you to fill it up for me. I will respond with something nonchalant like "Oh just chillin... you?" or "nothing much... what's up with you?" This makes the spotlight shine on you and so you have the onus to start the conversation. If you have nothing to say, you have just made a fool out of yourself.

ex. This just happened about 10 minutes ago.

Some bitch messaged me:

her: hey sweets!
her: :)
me: what's up
her: heya!!

... aaaaaand that is as far as the conversation went. notice how she tried to make me take that step forward? but I just stood still like a strong oak tree to keep her in the spotlight for MY ENTERTAINMENT. of course the bitch had nothing to say because she is just a ghost in the shell.

3) The last option is to directly respond to the question "what's up" and tell them about your day or what projects you have been working on. Of course you do this because you know that the person on the other end can carry a simple conversation to an engaging and stimulating one.


fini.

4th option would be to give the person a "?" mark

^ That's correct or just tell her straight up what you just posted in this thread. :D You'll see conversations with flying colours.

i usually reply

"is that it?", wait, if no reply then " nice chatting with you, been nice"

LOL yeah... I hate it when people initiate but expect you to tell them your life story.
Then when they have nothing to say its just awkward.

lots of people i know constantly do the

"i'm bored" thing

i hate it when ppl say "im bored"
what do i care?
and i get pretty offended.. haha

our social skils have diminised b/c of MMSN

Back in Grade 8, when people asked me, "Sup?" I would reply with, "The sky." :lol

IM is just a medium. The etiquette and conversation skills that are relevant really remain unchanged online and off. Really, it should make no difference, other than an emoticon or too.

Yeah I haven't used or received any what's up in a while.
We've moved past that stage. Now we're at the "yo nigga" stage :haha:

facebook* some people are so in tune with facebook its scary, you can go through their facebook alone and figure out whats going on their lives...

lol...are you sure it wasn't one of those auto msn bots..cause that's how they'll reply! :haha:

^ followed by an "a/s/l?"

I find it easy to end a convo after a "What's up?". All i reply with is "Bored", and it slowly slides downhill from there. Generally, I can keep up a convo regarding a general topic like school or homework. For me, for some reason, some old friends from elementary school have been adding me lately, and it's always fun to catch up on old times.

omg, she double hello'd you... i hope for your sake that she's hot, cuz she don't sound too smart~

fuck, i JUST got one of those~

I just fucking straight up ignore people. If they gave enough of a shit they'd call. Pointless chatter on MSN running on fumes is the last thing I want to waste my time on. I remember the days when I'd chat with someone for 3 hours of meaningful shit like the future and relationship topics, but nowadays it's tough to find people that give enough of a shit.

I know, I'm just such a great guy huh.

have you tried: "I've been looking at your pictures all night" ?

shoulda replied back with "YO" :lol

LOL @ this thread and all of the stupidity in it.

+1

You usually shouldn't have this problem if the person messaging you "actually" genuinely wants to talk to you.

Other than that, the girls you talk about seem like the people who attention-whore and revels in your pursuit of their attention. Which pretty much means she doesn't specifically want to talk to you, she wants anybody who's conveniently available to keep her occupied and her ego inflated;

Besides, this is usually only a problem to guys in the lower end of the social totempole. When a girl really wants a guy's attention. She vies for it. Other's are just basically maintenance guys; such as Best Friends Forever guys, Shoulder to Cry On Guys, Boyfriends-In-Theory guys, etc.

Hey, whats up with this thread?