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> It does seems that between 2010-14 or so, people disappeared en masse from AIM. People stopped writing back to personal e-mail. Everyone migrated to social me
by pavon 4y ago
> It does seems that between 2010-14 or so, people disappeared en masse from AIM. People stopped writing back to personal e-mail. Everyone migrated to social media, even though social media wasn’t a replacement.
In my experience, it was texting (and similar 1-on-1 phone apps) that displaced IM, not social media.
- gnicholas 4y agoIME it was before 2010. I was in college 2000-2004, and people used AIM then to keep in touch. But by the time I was in law school from 2004-2007, AIM was sparsely used by my peers. I wasn't texting at the time either, nor was I on FB. I guess we just emailed.
- warner25 4y agoInteresting. College for me was 2004-2008, and AIM was still the primary means of chatting where I was. I remember people giving their AOL screen names as contact information on semi-official documents. What did start to change was expressing ourselves on our Facebook pages instead of using our AIM "away" messages. I kept my AIM client logged in and running on my laptop throughout 2009 after moving away for my first job, but that's when I remember things shifting quickly to SMS text messaging. I resisted hard, kept using a dumb phone without a keyboard, and probably missed out on a lot of social connections in the first few years after college because of it. This reminds me of another recent thread in which I talked about Facebook turning to crap soon after I graduated college. Someone replied that they started college in 2010 and thought Facebook was fun until about 2015.
- ravagat 4y agoI wouldn't say it displaced but rather emphasized the instantaneous part of IM (Instant Messaging). The portability and convenience with the innovation in social media combined pros of the AIM, personal e-mail, etc.