After just over 20 years, the internet world can officially say goodbye to the legendary American Online’s Instant Messenger (AOL).
“All good things come to an end. On Dec. 15, we’ll bid farewell to AIM. Thank you to all our users!” AIM tweeted Oct. 6.
“AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed,” said the company in an interview with TMZ.
Mairin Deasy, senior communication studies major, reminisced over her times chatting on AIM and how this news made her feel.
“It was the pinnacle of my middle school career so I’m sad,” Deasy said. “We’ve moved on to bigger and better things so we are OK but it’s sad. It’s completely different now.”
Many students grew up using Instant Messenger on AOL as a way to communicate with friends and chat about games or movies.
Andrew Williams II, junior music education major, said the end of AIM made him feel old.
“I was about 9 years old and I remember my friends and I would stay up way too late talking about the animated ‘Batman’ and ‘X-Men’, which were really popular shows during the ‘90’s and early 2000s or video games like the ‘Super Nintendo’ on Instant Messenger,” Williams said. “I would get in trouble with my parents because they kept hearing the chirping noise from dial- up really late at night.”
While saying goodbye to such an iconic part of ‘90s technology, it is safe to say anyone with a social media account will be satisfied with other forms of communication.
