Instant messaging

Seems everyone regularly uses one and prefers IMs over email. For some reason, I don't use IMs at all (either at work or at home). So when today I signed in my Yahoo messenger, I got many messages from friends from SP college, my school, COEP, and UIUC. Just short ones, like 'Happy new year', 'how are you' etc. I guess I have to keep signing in regularly or else I will continue to missing such contacts, and I don't want to the kind of person who doesn't ever respond to any emails or contacts from old friends.