Internet chat is a social phenomenon that has quickly embedded itself as a daily activity for many people and has grown in acceptance over the last few years as a means of meeting people and sharing views.

In its basic form, chat is nothing more than a two-way, multi-person, online conversation.

When chatting, you can type questions or comments to other chatters in the "room" or "channel" and get real-time responses.

In a typical chat room, you can see every person in the room and "listen-in" on every conversation. An exception to this is if a person "hides" him or herself or is having a "private" chat with someone.

There is no limit to the topics discussed in chat rooms, and, since most chat sites have very little or no supervision, most anything can be said. For this reason, it is not recommended that children get involved with chat except in specially-moderated children's chat rooms.

To find chat sites that should be acceptable for children, go to Yahooligans! and type "chat" in the search box.

Not too long ago, getting on Internet Relay Chat or IRC meant downloading and using a separate chat program to converse online. These early programs were text-based, black and white, and somewhat complicated to use effectively.

Now, with chat being more tightly integrated with the World Wide Web, you can get a simple "plug-in" to turn your Web browser into a colorful, graphical, chat-ready room with sound and images.

While often it is the chat server program's limitations that confine visitors to visually-dull rooms, sometimes the system administrator has turned off features in order to save disk space or limit the amount of bandwidth used (the total information flow per second over the Internet connection).

There are many chat features that have been added or dramatically improved over the last twelve months including avatars, emotions, private chat rooms and profiles.

Avatars allow you to select a picture or icon that represents you in a graphical chat environment. This can range from a simple "smiley" face to a complex, 3-D, virtual reality rendering, depending on the site.

Emotions allow you to express yourself in unique ways. Examples of common emotions used include: "bop" which will display "[your name] bops everyone on the head" or "dance [another person]" which shows "[your name] swirls [another person] around the room, dancing." Kiss, hug, grin, wave, and wink are also frequently used emotions.

While it is possible to just "say" these words in your chat conversation, often the emotions will appear in a different color letting everyone know that it is suppose to be an action rather than a vocalization.

Many chat sites allow you to create a private room where you can invite guests for sideline conversations. This can be especially useful if the room you are in has too many people talking at once and you are having a difficult time keeping up with your conversation.

Finally, profiles allow you to see something about a person before getting into deep conversation. A typical profile will include name, age, gender, location and other personal information provided by a user. This information is voluntary and may or may not be accurate. Many people have adopted pseudo-personas for Internet chat, so you can never really know who you are chatting with.

If all of this sounds interesting to you and you are ready to explore the world of chat, I recommend that you choose an interesting nickname (often called a "nick," similar to a CB radio "handle") and start on Yahoo! Chat.

While it is not required, I strongly suggest that you download the optional free software "plug-in" offered.

Yahoo! Chat uses the best Web-based software available, "ichat," and does an excellent job of implementing the best features.

If you already knew most of what was mentioned here and know more about your chat friends than your spouse of 10 years, you will probably find yourself ROTFL (rolling on the floor laughing) when you read "You Might be Addicted to IRC if..." This is a "must visit" site for chat junkies.