This past week I came across a post on Buzzfeed that brought back all sorts of memories: “21 Signs You Were Addicted to AIM While Growing Up“. I could relate to pretty much everything on the list.

I don’t remember exactly when I started using AIM but I think it was my senior year in high school. My family didn’t subscribe to AOL on a normal basis but every now and then we used the free trials from those CD roms that always came in the mail. Therefore I knew all about how to use Instant Messenger.

I used the screen name ‘beatccr’ for several years. I had created that name freshman year in high school because I was a fan of The Beatles and Creedence Clearwater Revival. After a while I decide to change things up and switched it “I Worry Easily”. Yep. That was a thing for a few years.

Listening to these sounds brought back all the memories.

I entered college RIGHT at the peak of the use of AIM. Everyone was on it. You could hear those blips and bloops as you walked through the dorms. Even if you were in the same room with someone you still IMed them. The best would be when you messaged someone across the hall about getting dinner and they yelled back at you.

I went through several color palate and font changes. It was like trying on new outfits until you find what suits you. Away messages was where I posted all my emo song lyrics. I would like to apologize to all the people who kept seeing Dashboard Confessional show up in my messages every other week.

There were so much passive aggressiveness in my profile. I never called out anyone but a lot of stuff was clearly directed at certain people. 98% of them never said anything about it. But I’m pretty sure that they knew it was about them and didn’t give a _____.

Anyone else put up that link where you could stalk whoever checked your profile? And you didn’t put it so it was super obvious. You did it in a Rick Roll type of way and then you’d try to figure out who were these random people who found your profile.

Do you remember buddy icons? And how you had to pick the perfect one in order to fit your personality? We used to visit sites like BadAssBuddy to get them.

The longest I ever stayed on AIM was at least 44 days 3 hours 57 min. That meant that I never turned off my computer for a month and a half. Also that the power never went out for that long either. Oh those were the days. Also when you had to go somewhere else, like the library or math emporium, you’d get on AIM express so you could always stay in contact with people.

I made (and lost) a lot of friends because of AIM. Some of them I still talk to though we’ve moved onto different messaging platforms. In the past three years I’ve been using Gchat but it’s not the same and I think the novelty is also wearing off. Not everyone uses it and I think that it’s dropping

Sigh. Real time chatting online is now a thing of the past now that we all text with each other. I guess I could also talk to people in person.