So long, AIM. For years, for millions, you were the internet

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Ackkkk! All caps!

DAVID PIERCE GEAR 10.06.1712:51 PM

SO LONG, AIM. FOR YEARS, FOR MILLIONS, YOU WERE THE INTERNET

THE BEST PRESERVATION of my middle- and high-school years doesn't exist in a yearbook or in a diary. All you need to know about me, between the ages of 12 and 17, you could find in my AIM chat logs.

AOL—or Oath, or Verizon, or whatever the messy conglomerate of failed internet companies turned confusing advertising businesses is called now—announced today that it'll be shutting down AOL Instant Messenger for good on December 15, 2017. Frankly the news is a long time coming: AIM's been a ghost town for a decade, long since replaced by Facebook and WhatsApp and Skype and Snapchat and an entire generation of social products that evidently nobody at AOL ever saw coming or understood how to compete with.

It's easy to forget now, but for a brief moment at the turn of the century no internet company was cooler than AOL. But my parents wouldn't pay for AOL, no matter how often I made the financial case for our improved internet access and the emotional lift of that "You've got mail!" clip. I had an email @optonline.net, and lived outside the walled garden while all my friends partied inside. ... Whether you were a banker on Wall Street or a pimply middle schooler, you were on AIM. It was the best messaging app, the only one that mattered.

But then AIM happened. Originally a skunkworks project within AOL, the messenger almost wasn't released, and even then shouldn't have been so successful. But it quickly became undeniable: whether you were a banker on Wall Street or a pimply middle schooler, you were on AIM. It was the best messaging app, the only one that mattered.

[murielm99]

1. My son always called AOL

Amateurs On Line. He was a snarky kid.

Now he works for the Department of Energy. He works in a computing center.

[LeftInTX]

2. I thought it was long gone

[tymorial]

3. Ahh memories

AIM, ICQ (uh oh), MSN messager.

So many good times. Oh and IRC... man did that program get me a LOT of dates back in college. 5 boyfriends in a row.

[NightWatcher]

5. I too got lots of (theres not fun, polite way to say it) action from AIM

Instant Messenger and MySpace may be laughed at now, but many good times were arranged on its pages.

[tymorial]

6. For me it was the late 90s and it was difficult meeting

Other bisexual and gay men. My college was small and in a small town. I never experienced any direct bigotry and hatred but it was a different time. The college lgbt alliance had only one gay member. The rest were lesbian women. I met most of my boyfriend's on the gayboston channel on IRC

[Ken Burch]

4. For a second there, I thought you were saying...

...that the American Indian Movement started the 'Net...

I hadn't gone back far enough with the cyberworld to know of the AIM you were referencing.

[Kaleva]

7. Support for WebTV ceased not long ago.

"On July 1, 2013, an email was sent out to customers that the service would be shutting down on September 30, 2013, and customer service would be available until January 15, 2014."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSN_TV