After 20 years of connecting people around the world, AOL's Instant Messenger is going
offline for good at the end of the year.
Welcome back to What's Trending, I'm Ava Gordy.
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Did anybody else think that AIM instant messaging was already over?
Just me...
AOL announced today that on December 15th AOL Instant Messenger will be shut down.
Many speculated that the shut down was coming after AIM cut off third-party client support
in March.
But now that the news is official, social media is paying their respects.
Joey Langone tweets, "Let us all now please rise, and honor AIM with a moment of static."
Jerry David writes, "Before text messaging, there was AIM.
Before Twitter, there were AIM away messages.
Before MySpace, there was your AIM bio."
Calvin Stowell replies, "Oh wow.
AIM was my life in middle school.
Rest In Peace my friend."
Honestly, I used to just lie about my away messages and say that I was doing cool stuff
when I was just having dinner with my family...
Robinson Meyer writes, "You kids don't understand.
You could never understand.
It was the mall.
It was the back alley.
It was the library carrel.
It was everything."
When I used AIM, I was 10, so I don't know what a library carrel is.
I feel like kids today don't even understand that what they're doing is called instant
messaging...
It's just their life now...
With a new way to talk to people, AIM brought a lot of people together.
Meredith Alling writes, "My husband and I AIMed for hours when we were still just friends,
him one floor below me in our dorm.
AIM is so cute."
Jeremy Dennis says, "I'll always have a soft spot for AIM and ICQ because the first few
years of dating my wife were long distance.
They were a great help."
Erica Boyce tweeted, "RIP, AIM.
Somewhere in your files is the first conversation I had with my husband, circa 2005.
May it never see the light of day."
Yeah, there's a bit of a cringe factor to a lot of these old AIM memories...
I used to message my crush just like, "do you have a crush on me," and they would not
reply...
I watched anime in middle school... no one thought I was cool.
Chris Peak shares, "In college, I was courting ("courting") this wonderful girl.
At the time, my AIM away message was 'peace, love, and barefootedness.'"
Pablo S. Torre writes, "I made the lyrics to 'Drift Away' my AIM away message after
getting dumped my freshman year of college and I still haven't forgiven myself."
Great song, though...
I forgive you.
Jason Gore tweets, "A college friend once sent me a 3 Doors Down mp3 over AIM and said,
'Check out this new band!'
Our friendship quickly ended.
Thanks, AIM."
I wonder how long it took to send an mp3 over AIM...
For something that was so beloved, not many people will be impacted at all about AIM shutting
down.
Doug DeJulio writes on Facebook, "Wow, this is an example of an Internet service that
didn't get turned off until 'after' I had stopped using it.
Neat, it's usually the other way around."
Sam says, "No offense, but I thought AIM was shut down years ago."
Sam!
Me and you... on the same page.
Mute Bae said, "Just because I haven't used AIM in years doesn't mean I'm not sad.
It's like finding out a band you were really into 15 years ago broke up."
Cara Jeffrey tweets, "My office still uses AIM, so this is sort of terrible."
Who the f*ck do you work for?
That still uses AIM?
Get out of there!
My embarrassing screen name...
I want to know your embarrassing screen names in the COMMENTS below, but mine was 'MSADChick32.'
It stood for modeling, singing, acting, dancing chick.
I don't know where the 32 came from...
Before we leave you, let's send off AIM with one final away message.
Taylor Lorenz tweets, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
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