AIM, or AOL Instant Messenger, was one of the most significant platforms in the history of social media. AIM was released in 1997. It was the first of it’s kind allowing real time messaging with people all across the world. There were competitors such as Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger, but the one we all remember today is AIM. For a lot of us, this was our first form of social media and gave us a way to communicate with groups of people without directly reaching out to them individually, such as sending an email.
What set AIM apart was the ability to add personality to your online presence. Being able to choose your screen name as well as set your away message gave your profile personality and could be viewed as one of the first forms of posting a status. Our away messages were never something bland such as “be back in 2 hours” or “will return tomorrow”. We used this to post what was on our mind, tell a joke, or share a story with everyone on our friends list.
AIM helped shape what social media is today. We still use many different forms of messengers, screen names (though most of us would never reuse our silly teenage AIM name), and we still use the internet language that AIM helped create. Abbreviations such as LOL or BRB are known by the large majority of the population and we still use them daily. We all still have profile photos and post statuses with funny quotes or quick stories from our days.
My experience with AIM was also my first experience with any form of social media. I started using it in middle school to play online games with people across the country. These games actually led to me getting a job that let me live my childhood dream and travel the world. I also used AIM to talk to people from school every day. I remember getting home from class and jumping online to talk to my friends about our days, then setting my away message with a funny quote or letting everyone know where I would be that evening.
AIM did eventually fade away and shut down, but not without leaving it’s mark as one of the most iconic and innovative social media platforms. The problem that AIM faced was a lack of innovation over the long run. With texting and new social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat all having messaging functions, the need for a stand alone messaging app became unnecessary. In 2011 AIM only held 1% of the online messaging community. Another downfall of AIM was that it never made it to the mobile format as well as all of the other apps out there. In the days before cell phones this was not an issue, but once people shifted from desktop computers to mobile devices, they also shifted away from AIM. While none of us use it anymore, AIM left us all with fond memories and our first taste of the capabilities of online communication. For a lot of us AIM was the beginning of a lifelong use of the internet and social media.
Image source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/269793833914843215/
Information source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/pioneering-aol-instant-messenger-end-180965152/