The only time you were allowed to be alone was while studying, and you better have used that away message to complain about it or you'd be suspected of (gasp!) enjoying schoolwork. No one would ever, ever write "Quietly reading alone in my room". "Out with my girls!" or "Playin Bball with Dave and Dan" were variations on socially acceptable norms. More often than not, it was important to let people know that not only were you out doing something, but that you weren't alone. No, you needed to be "Gettin' my shower on" or "Foodin' it up" instead. To simply write "Showering" or "Eating" is the equivalent of admitting how boring and mundane your life really is. Helpful Hint: Single word informative away messages are always a social faux pas. Update Your Own Away Message to Show How Interesting, Witty, and Popular you Are If God forbid our internet was ever down, we would shake and convulse with the pains of voyeurism withdrawal. Nowadays we can get our fix via Facebook or Twitter, but it was back in the AIM glory days that we first grew enamored with the notion of broadcasting our every activity cyberworldward. Read Everyone's Away Message Religiously and Addictively Yes, we had 12 versions of KittenLuver on our buddy lists, but it was far better than having been perceived as an individual. In the early days of AIM, choosing a non-conventional or highly unique and personalized screenname was akin to social suicide. Inclusion of birth year, age, or graduation year numbers was a popular motif, one that would likely have brought many of us into To Catch a Predator-like scenarios in the current online climate. Because our middle school minds were so achingly unoriginal, at your suggestion of a screenname AIM would inevitably spit back something like, "How about QTpie18483134852?" Generally, these types of screen names included words like "Sweet" and "QTpie" for a girl and sports or athlete names for boys. Let's explore a few of the universal norms and mores that drove our socially conscious AIM activity:Ĭreate a Screen Name that Conveys Your Personality There were a complex set of unwritten rules that governed our AIM behavior. Oh AOLBuddy and InternetFriend, how we miss your newbie-like innocenceīefore we were constantly plugged in to ten different networks of social media, we were a single-minded bunch. They're called cell phones.Įvidence of a simpler time. Just imagine how it would shock his middle school self to learn that nearly every one of us has one of these in our purse or pocket right now. "I remember thinking to myself that if I were really rich, I would make a handheld device so I could take AIM wherever I went," he mentioned. My boyfriend and I were discussing the issue and he mentioned his previous middle school AIM addiction that bordered on meriting a 12-step program. A time when just the right balance of ~*~*~* to words with aLtErNaTiNg CaPiTaL aNd LoWeR cAsE lEtTeRs were enough to make your profile sparkle. When our away messages, chat icons, and AIM profiles defined us so completely to our judgmental online peers. Back when your online persona had a single avenue of emergence. Hearken back, if you will, to a time before Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and all other social media. Though functions like Facebook Chat and GChat keep us messaging our friends instantly, the loss I mourn is of our quirky but universal rules of AIM etiquette and practice. Their instant messaging program used to be the very cornerstone of my existence, and it's simply faded into the obscurity of my impending (okay, imminent) adulthood. I had the abrupt realization the other day that I no longer use America Online Instant Messenger (AIM).
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