Couldn't agree more, it's all elitist crap. And I HAVE programmed on punch cards (albeit at an early age) fwiw.

Having worked with and without, I can say that IM can be used to exchange information much faster than walking over to someone's office and interrupting whatever they are doing for what could have been a 10 second IM exchange. That being said, folks need to know when a voice conversation is truly warranted. I feel that those who do not like IM are stuck is the mode of 'everything needs a face-to-face meeting'. Personally, I feel that many times those face to faces can be overkill, unless you work in very small teams...