AIM was basically THE way an entire generation talked to friends after school in the late 90s and 2000s, complete with away messages and buddy lists. it slowly lost users through the 2010s as texting and then facebook messenger took over, and AOL, by then owned by Verizon, officially shut it down on december 15, 2017. there was a genuine wave of nostalgia online that day.
ben_carter the away message thing is so real, mine was always some emo song lyric
nicole_grant lmaooo same, I'm almost scared to think about what mine said
I still remember my screen name from like 2003, some things you never forget
the away message was basically primitive social media before social media existed, people put song lyrics and cryptic stuff up constantly lol
AIM buddy icons were peak self expression for a 12 year old in 2005, we had it good honestly