A.I.M.ing For Success
It’s 8 p.m. on Friday at your college university. You’re getting ready to go hang out with your friends and see where the night takes you, but where are you meeting? Your mobile night and weekends plan doesn’t start for another hour, so how do you get in touch with your friends to figure out the evening’s shenanigans? If you’re old enough to remember, you know you headed straight for the computer to get online and check the away messages on AOL Instant Messenger to find what friends were online.
AOL Instant Messenger didn’t begin the way you might imagine. Many remember America Online and the way that compact discs would show up offering their services for a fee. In a time of early internet browsing, AOL didn’t do anything for free. That’s when, in 1997, a few developers and engineers at AOL decided to create a new, free program (without receiving their bosses permission) where they could talk to each other at work. As one could imagine, AOL wasn’t quite on board with “free”, and even less interested in this happening while on the job.
This service didn’t take long to catch on, and once it gained enough attention and became popular, the company agreed to keep it as a permanent service. Ben Panko of Smithsonian Magazine points out why AIM quickly became the standard for internet messaging. “AIM filled a niche for easy, instant and casual communication, something the rise of the Internet age seemed to promise.”
I’m drawn to AOL Instant Messenger because of what it meant to me in my first trip through my undergrad career at Western Carolina University. I don’t remember a day in 2003 where I wasn’t logged in to see what the plans were for the day on campus. I had already given up on going to class less than a month into my freshman year, so I had nothing to do but see where my friends were and if they wanted to hang out. It was my way of finding out who was in class, when you were going to eat at the dining hall with friends and who had plans for the weekend. If you’re keeping score at home, AIM also assisted in my early exit from WCU for lack of attendance in class.
There is ample significance to digital history thanks to what the creators of AIM were able to bring to the early days of social media. In the midst of the 2000’s, AIM commanded 52% of the online instant messaging market. It predates the beginning of mobile text messaging and became the main way for teenagers to keep in touch with friends.
David Pearce of Wired points out, in perfect mid-2000’s form, how shorthand digital messaging can be attributed to the sharp rise of AIM’s popularity. “AIM taught me how to LOL, and the subtle difference between ROFL and ROFLMAO. I was always brb-ing, and always jk’ing,” he jokes. AIM was the way that you learned to communicate in a different way, and contributes to the reason that mobile texting has become the new way to talk to someone rather than calling and having to speak to someone over the receiver.
So next time you see someone text “LOL” or “imo” to a belief, just remember hearing that creaking door open and how it felt to see your college crush come back from being away. Just make sure this time that you get the nerves to talk to her without screwing it up.
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