10 Years of Instant Messaging

Years from now who knows where the art of instant messaging will be, but I will always enjoy coming from the generation that kicked off instant messaging with pomp and circumstance. Yes, instant messaging goes a ways back if you want to get technical, but mass market, pop culture IM is a whole other beast. Ten years ago, instant messaging was still in its infancy and a few people had caught onto this addictive way of talking through AOL. Remember AOL? That service where you checked out chat rooms while your parents probably paid for it… This was back when you got the CD in your mailbox every few weeks with a whopping 25 free hours and a randomly generated password in the form of “bubble-brazboard” (I always figured they just stuck a stoned intern in a small office to design these).  The only reason the 25 hours didn’t run out in about…25 hours, was because we were all still dialing-up with a modem.

(For you younger readers, a modem is when you get online through a telephone. Sorry, I’ll explain that also…a telephone is a cell-phone that’s attached to a wall, it doesn’t text, it doesn’t go online, it has one ring, you can’t play games on it and with the older versions, you couldn’t see who was calling. Oh and for our older readers, congratulations, you made it to the internet. Thanks for coming.)

Meanwhile around 1997, AIM launched and the world got turned on its ass.

First thing that happened over the course of ten years of IM, was that people forgot how to use a telephone (remember, the cell-phone that’s attached to the wall).  Sure cell-phones were starting to get popular, but as we know these would eventually become secondary tools, used to confirm IM conversations and ultimately send IMs from this as well.  Of course, we’ve now given up the ability to talk… so we can type conversations instead on phones (on tiny keys, with three letters per key).

Away messages. This almost warrants an entirely separate story.  Style number 1, movie quotes.  No problem there, I’ll take a Caddyshack quote any hour of the day.  Hey, I’ll even deal with a quote from The Notebook, because, ok, women need theirs as well.  My problem comes when you girls started with the lengthy song lyrics and now we know get your poor sappy deep feelings over some busted relationship in the form of the entire lyric set from Elliott Smith’s Either Or album.  Can you imagine dramatic IM in the 80s?  The Smiths and The Cure would’ve been massacred in away messages.

**Historical fun fact! Many years ago schools used to offer typing courses to help men and women type faster on their keyboards! It wasn’t until the turn of the millennium that IMs about high school gossip, online breakups and general teenage angst became common practice for teaching rapid typing skills**

Style #2:  The play-by-play away message.  15 lines between ILuvJustin034 and XOCheerJessXO…this is the SportsCenter for high school and college girls (updates at :22 and :44).  Sure, guys check these also (we lie about it).  When it comes to the away message world… movie quotes, drunk messages and links to videos of people falling off ladders are great, but natural drama will always be king.  I’m not saying the male species is innocent, but some of you younger gals need to stop letting your entire group of friends know how deep your emotions run courtesy of the lyrical talents of Beyonce.  Honestly I’m waiting for someone to opt for the away message suicide note:

“I’m Away from My Computer…for the rest of my life”

I used to get sick of away messages and how ridiculous they could be, but once you’re past college in the working world, it changes again. Maybe it’s apathy, maybe it’s the fantastic way that the corporate world murders the creativity of people in their 20s…but eventually everyone is just “Away”. While I couldn’t stand the online drama, it’s amazing how I miss it now. Sure, away messages of anyone between the ages of 10-21 are an absolute train wreck, but entertaining nonetheless.

Now if you’ll excuse me…

“I’m playing a video game that takes up the entire screen”