“We got to be weird and irreverent, or so what we thought weird and irreverent was at 13. “AIM is in many ways a predecessor to how I behave online today, even as an adult,” Inverse’s pop culture writer Eric Francisco says.
Those years of incessant, indefatigable angst were part of what made AIM special for so many of us. For this reason, an entire generation memorized the lyrics to Something Corporate songs - including the Ulysses-length classic, “My Konstantine” - purely for the purpose of AIM away messages. It inspired users to channel their adolescent thirst into carefully-crafted away messages in the hopes that some wandering voyeur on the buddy list would notice. It was the canvas on which we painted with our incredibly misguided melodrama, fueled by energy drinks and ennui at times, it was a much-needed respite from a world seemingly on fire.ĪIM gave us a sense of “community” before that became new media buzzword. Whether Slack wants to admit it or not, AIM will always be its emo grandparent, kicking and screaming into the void.īut for those who came of age in the early-to-mid 2000s, AOL Instant Messenger was more than some way to talk to our friends after school or work. Still, these communication tools and more - including, arguably, Twitter - wouldn’t be where they are today without their quirky and clunky progenitor. Services like Slack, Hipchat, and more are basically AIM but optimized for capitalist ideas of efficiency rather than hormonally charged away messages. In a crowded market of messaging services, AOL has struggled to maintain relevancy. We’re more excited than ever to focus on building the next generation of iconic brands and life-changing products.” “Our focus will always be on providing the kind of innovative experiences consumers want. “We know there are so many loyal fans who have used AIM for decades, and we loved working and building the first chat app of its kind since 1997,” AOL writes on its help page. On Friday, AOL’s iconic messaging service, AIM, shuts down for good. After 20 years, the sun has finally set on the messaging app that groomed an entire generation of extremely online semi-adults.
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