What Happened to AIM?

Remember the original days of the Internet, when everyone HAD to use AOL to connect to the internet using their 28-56K modem on dial-up? Sure, the Internet was slower than a caterpillar, no speedy browsing, but it was also a much simpler Internet.

AOL started the fad of instant messaging. AOL Instant Messager. AIM. When I was young and in grade school it was cool to talk to everyone you could online, just for the sake of being able to. When we were kids we'd make a new screen name every week of our favorite sport or celebrity with a random set of numbers and thought it was cool. Part of it was being young, part of it was the development of the technology. The ability to communicate with someone instantly over this abstract world-wide-web.

I guess that was what, 12+ some odd years ago, and now everything has changed. There's plenty of different options that have serious advantages and disadvantages than their competitors. Just a quick sampling of some of the IM platforms I know: AIM, GChat, ICQ, Skype, MSN, Yahoo.

I can't honestly say I know anyone that uses MSN or Yahoo. I never did. I don't know if that's ever seen any success. I'm not sure why Skype isn't more successful, considering its popular for video chat and international calling. GChat is successful because of Google and it's incorporation with Gmail. ICQ I don't know much about either.

I understand and appreciate the idea of competition, but I'm going to argue that AIM is still the best, and I can't understand why it's not nearly as popular as it should be. AIM had such a huge head start on their competitors and lost a significant portion of it's market share.

I use AIM everyday, but it's clear to me that most of my friends don't. They've settled for other alternatives. The main culprit is: Facebook chat.

I personally detest Facebook chat. Mainly because of how we use Facebook. You "friend" people you vaguely know or may of met randomly, or someone's relative/sibling/whatever, that shouldn't entitle us to be able to communicate instantly. If we really had some kind of a connection, we'd find ways to communicate without it. That's not the way I see it used. I see it used more for people to "creep" on each other - from behind the screen. Even less real social interaction than we weren't accomplishing previously.

I know other people that love Facebook chat - makes perfect sense to them. Some of them qualify as the "creeps" and others qualify as just normal people who like everything all on one page to make it simple. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but I think it's terrible. It's so crude and has so many bugs. Sometimes your message doesn't go through. Sometimes it says the other person is offline when they're online. I'll switch the page I'm viewing and forget I was in the middle of a conversation. It just doesn't feel well put together, and the randomness of people who will IM is creepy/bizarre/annoying/not worth it.

Now this is where you should be asking "so why do you use it?" Quite simple - I would if I didn't have to, but it's the only way I can communicate with one of my best friends in military school, as his phone's been taken away. This isn't a sob story - it is what it is. I want to keep in touch and it's great to hear from him. It's worth getting the random "hey what's up" from the girl-you-ignore-but-doesn't-seem-to-get-the-hint or the kid-from-class-who-thinks-he-is-friends-with-everyone-but-he-really-was-a-loser - those are the times when I quickly "log-off" to avoid conversations I didn't want to have in the first place. And don't you dare judge me, because you know you damn well do the same thing. And if you don't, you're too nice.

Let's not get it twisted though - there's been some positive experiences from Facebook chat - people who are really outgoing and reach out and that's how some friendships start because they don't know how else to contact you. That's not creepy - just friendly. They are just in the real minority - I feel anyway. I've seen too many of my friends creeping on girls to feel like it's really a good idea for me to talk to anyone, so I generally don't even pay attention to who's on. If someone IMs me, they do, but I don't pay attetnion

Anyways, my point is that I still think AIM is the best platform for instant messaging. GChat is a very close second, and their AIM integration makes it virtually the same thing. I don't have many friends on GChat (or AIM anymore for that matter) to really utilize it, but I still prefer AIM. Call it old habits. They die hard.

Somebody want to IM me? I'm bored.