[curiousuburb]

As an old timer who remembers 300 baud acoustic modems connecting to the local BBS, recalls when there were less than 2000 newsgroups, and reminisces about early 'realtime' communications over chat, including audio chat in 97 or before (when most PC audio cards weren't full duplex yet)...

iChat got regular startup item status for probably the first 6 months after it came out.

Then I noticed the productivity hit.

90% of chats were frivolous (and, ironically these can demand hours at inconvenient times).
Multitasking iChat and certain games or full screen apps is a pain (particularly on my wimpy iBook500).

10% (or less) actually answered a question in a timely way.
Most of the time the person I wanted was 'Away' or offline when needed.

I might use it more if some distant PC friends used AIM instead of MSN, or we all had iSights.

I only fire it up now on chat night or to play Big Bang Chess.
My productivity seems to have gone up a bit since then. Perhaps unrelated.

My sister is a huge Friendster junkie, and that may colour my perspective somewhat.