No actually, there is value in instant messaging, and I admit I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about it at first... if you are available it's very productive having instant communication, very short back and forth without assumptions (strangely having it less immediate than a phone call and more more than an email _is_ advantageous, it brings clarity, forcing you to think more before putting responses into words, but immedite enough to not encouraging monologue and digressions at the same time).

If you aren't available, you can just collect little messages - better still the person who sent them can edit and refine their messages after they realise you aren't immediately available - you can't really do any of that with email.

What I still don't quite get though, is why anyone should be paying for this.