AOL Instant Messenger, the chat program that connected a generation to their classmates and
crushes while guiding them through the early days of digital socializing, will shut down on Dec. 15, its parent company announced on Friday.
Released in 1997, the program had largely faded into obscurity over the last decade, replaced by text messages, Google Chat, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and on and on we go. But at its height, AIM, as it was known, served as the social center for teenagers and young adults, the scene of deeply resonant memories and the place where people learned how to interact online.
“AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed,” Michael Albers, vice president of communications product at Oath, the parent company of AOL, said in a statement on Friday.
The news of its official demise was met with cries of nostalgia, especially from those who were coming of age as AIM rose to prominence. For many people now in their 20s and 30s, learning to talk online coincided with learning to communicate like an adult, said Caroline Moss, 29, a writer and editor in New York who for years paid tribute to AIM with the parody Twitter account @YourAwayMessage.
The chat program was a workaround for the typical clumsiness and anxiety of adolescence. Too shy to talk to the boy at his locker? You could go home and chat with him for hours.
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RECENT COMMENTS
MF 2 days ago
ha...you obviously don't know how many of us "oldsters" spent hours and hours on there....miss it...but no ones there anymore....:
jwdooley 2 days ago
My best IM recollection is tutoring physics in the old AOL academic assistance center.
Stephanie Higgins 2 days ago
What a fantastic and accurate piece!
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Scared of inviting the girl to homecoming? You might find more courage on AIM.
“There are a lot of people who had milestone moments in their lives that happened on AIM,” said Ms. Moss, who was once better known by the screen name sparklegurl27. “Someone asked them out, or they got broken up with, or they got in a fight with a friend.”
And then there were the away messages and profiles. As important as clothing or the buttons on a backpack, picking just the right song lyrics or inspirational quotes were among the most visible self-installed billboards of personal identity. It was a place to pay tribute to the senior class or to friends — who were, without fail, the best friends in the whole world.
Those short messages were the basis of Ms. Moss’s parody account, which assumed the character of a teenage girl whose parents were sometimes just THE WORST.
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your away message @YourAwayMessage
Ok literally my parents were supposed to go out tonight and now they aren't and now I can't be on AIM for more than an hour?? Like no
4:26 PM - Sep 26, 2014
7 7 Replies 977 977 Retweets 1,133 1,133 likes
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your away message @YourAwayMessage
I am away from my computer right now. *
*unless your Seth Cohen ;-)
9:48 PM - Jul 11, 2015
15 15 Replies 752 752 Retweets 957 957 likes
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your away message @YourAwayMessage
all I want is a
drama free summer.
8:51 PM - Jun 10, 2015
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Though chat services predated AIM, including Internet Relay Chat (commonly known as IRC), AOL’s offering arrived at a time when the internet was rapidly spreading into more homes. As dial-up 56k modems gave way to D.S.L. and cable connections, AIM asserted itself as the dominant service of the time.
Despite the nostalgia on Friday, AIM had gone largely unused for years. You can still log in if you remember your password, and your buddy list remains intact, but all data will be deleted on Dec. 15.
We’d say more, but our dad needs the computer.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/technology/aol-aim-shut-down.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftechnology&action=click&contentCollection=technology®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront
