Good to chat

A decade ago, new communications tools emerged that promised so much: a new world of low-cost interaction regardless of time or distance.

Already, email is losing its allure, weighed down by spam and by internal memos copied to everyone.

Now Microsoft’s MSN is to close its chatrooms in the UK, citing ‘unsolicited information such as spam’ and ‘inappropriate communication’. It’s the top story on the BBC this morning.

What a powerful euphemism for our age: inappropriate communication.