Ted Leung came out with an interesting comment in relation to the mass of communications mechanisms:

I need a whole display just for communications! In fact, that’s precisely how I use a second monitor when it’s available and how I use my laptop when I’m at work. The second monitor is there just to run the various IM clients, IRC clients, mail and iTunes. Typically I also have NetNewsWire open on the second screen to handle the mass of news/blogs/comics feeds. I don’t really find a second monitor useful for much else – I focus much better on single monitor so switching apps works better than switching monitors and most importantly, having to move the pointer a few thousand pixels to start working with a new app is extremely tedious.