[The Beast1]

I gradually stopped using AIM back in 2006 when I got my first cell phone, but for some reason, this shutdown has me saddened by the news.

AIM was a huge part of my preteen and adolescent years. I was massively dorky and apprehensive about approaching girls I liked, so this was obviously the first tech crunch that allowed me to have distant friendships with girls. Surprisingly, I landed a few of my first girlfriends over AIM on the sheer basis we were both too insecure to talk to each other in real life.

Not to mention, going into the "personals" chat rooms to ask what were most likely old ugly dudes A/S/L?

I even recall a few adults using AOL to meet other people in the early 90s when the quality of the userbase was higher.

Regardless, the internet back in the 90s and early 2000s wasn't the cesspool of trash that it was today. Cell phones could only call and maybe text and AIM filled a void to continue conversations with friends once school ended.

For the nostalagic: