ICYMI - How AIM Changed the Internet 4ever
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2022
⏱️ 25 minutes
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Summary
AOL Instant Messenger launched 25 years ago, but at the time nobody understood exactly how important it would be in shaping the way we all interact online. On today’s show, Rachelle and Madison talk to AIM expert Caroline Moss about the early years of the platform, the playful shenanigans people got up to on there as teens, and how it led us to the world of always being online. Caroline hosts the podcast Gee Thanks, Just Bought It!
Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Derek John.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You've got mail. |
| 0:13.1 | Hi, I'm Madison Malone Kircher. |
| 0:15.1 | And I'm Rachel Hampton, and you're listening to I see why I'm mine. |
| 0:18.5 | In case you missed it. |
| 0:20.1 | Slate's podcast about internet culture. |
| 0:22.7 | Can you believe 25 years ago AOL launched the now defunct AIM or AOL Instant Messenger? |
| 0:29.3 | I feel so old when you say that. |
| 0:31.5 | I also cannot believe that it launched the year after I was born. |
| 0:35.1 | I don't know why, but I felt like... |
| 0:36.7 | I felt like AIM was my thing, but I'm |
| 0:41.0 | realizing that it is in fact a lot of people's thing. Yeah, it was my thing. It was my thing for a time. |
| 0:53.8 | You have to say more. I have to say my friends and I were |
| 0:56.9 | huge dorks and so we were very into G chat. Shut up. We were ready G chat very early, but basically |
| 1:03.0 | my memory of any sort of platform with an away message like AIM, I have a distinct memory, |
| 1:08.0 | not to brag, but my parents have an above ground hot tub, which just height of luxury. And I have a distinct memory, not to brag, but my parents have an above-ground hot tub, which is just height of luxury. |
| 1:14.0 | And I have a distinct memory of setting some status about being in this hot tub in the hope that my crush would picture me in this hot tub in my, like, bikini. |
| 1:25.3 | This was insane. |
| 1:26.5 | Like, like, no part of this ever came to reality from me |
| 1:29.9 | leaving a status that is like swimming in bubbles. Madison, that's genius. I don't know what |
| 1:36.3 | you're talking about. That is simply the height of what in a way message is for. You |
| 1:42.8 | understood the assignment. Yeah how about you well i i do have |
| 1:50.3 | a less genius experience on on aim also there's a little micro generational thing between a i'm and |
... |
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