TIME TO SET YOUR FINAL AWAY MESSAGE

Say goodbye to AIM.

AIM has been around since 1997, it's had a strong, long 20 year run and is now shutting its doors, sadly, on December 15, 2017. I want everyone to log back in to their AIM profile and see what's going on in there because guess what? I logged back into mine and surprisingly, I still remembered my username, my password, why I chose my screen name, my icon was still in place, & my friends were still there. Why is AIM closing its doors? Well, it's no shock to any of us that AOL has been on the downswing of trends ever since Facebook and social media has come out and revolutionized the way we interact and communicate with people on a day-to-day basis.

Now, I will tell you, I created my first screen name in about 2004 and have been with AIM from 2004 to about 2008. In 2008, the Facebook Messenger platform came out. As soon as that happened, I was torn. Do I stay with AIM and communicate with people on AIM because it's easy, because it's what I know or do I shift? Do I adapt to the changes and use the Facebook Messenger platform?

Here is the user interface- the blue Windows frame with the yellow running man prompting a login. After I signed on I saw this black and white box on the side of your computer with little gray names of friends and family and whoever I met. None of their screen names ever had a first or last name, only these code words for their personality types & activities of desire.

What happened was, when I messaged with someone, I clicked on their icon, their little screen name, a box comes up and I was able to connect to somebody on a back-to-forth instant connection level. Now, this was the first time a lot of experienced that little, quick jolt of adrenaline. "Oh my, the sound. My best friend or boyfriend is here, ready to chat!," because I had those sounds for people and was able to connect with people on a completely instantaneous level.

Facebook rolls out to the colleges. It came to high school in about 2007 and then everyone's parent, everyone was just starting to go on Facebook. In 2008, it was time to say goodbye to AIM because they just did not withstand Facebook's complete and total tyranny over them. Let's just call it like it is. Because, the Facebook Messenger platform number one, gave me a place to look at people's pictures and interact with them at the same time. Public information was easily accessible; where someone lives, where they went to school, pictures of them. The pictures enlarged to be full screen. 

Facebook gave us more of that interaction level but guess what?