If you enjoyed your childhood in the ‘90s, then you must have also experienced the advent of instant messaging around the same time. Yes, I mean the time of ICQ, AIM, and MSN messenger. Do those ring a bell? Or were you too young to comprehend? Do you get the nostalgia when you think about the?
Instant Messaging with friends and strangers online was not only enjoyable and thrilling, but it was revolutionary in the ‘90s through to the early 2000s. Instant messaging (a.k.a chatting) has changed the way we communicate.
Before the Internet:
Before the age of the internet, phone calls were the only instant means of communication available for us back in the days. Calling even the next city or your neighbor would cause you to cough out loads of bucks! Not to mention the complexities associated with talking to more than one person at a time (conference call).
Then in came the internet! The holy World Wide Web brought along with it the instant messaging in the ‘90s. Suddenly we were able to communicate with people all over the world instantly. All you needed was a Dial-Up internet connection. This made the world become a global village. And better still, it was way cheaper than a phone call. All you needed was your monthly internet subscription.
It doesn’t matter whether you met these three heroes before or whether you even know the acronyms in full; all you need to know is that this was the gateway to the world. They were the mother of all the interactions as we know it today. They were the mother of all the acronyms like lol, LMFAO and the rest.
The Story Behind the great chat Apps of the ‘90s.
Well, I had no idea what he acronyms meant until I was about 15 years old. A sure someone out there still doesn’t know the acronyms in full. I will start with that:
- AIM – Stands for AOL Instant Messenger. (AOL is America OnLine.)
- As the name suggests, it was created by AOL. It was popular in the 1990s to the later 2000s in North America and was the leading IM application in the region.
- ICQ – It was coined from the word “I Seek You.” It was developed by an Israeli company called Mirabilis in 1996 and was later bought by AOL in 1998, and then later bought by Mail.ru Group in 2010.
- MSN – Stands for MSN Messenger. It was later rebranded and called Windows Live Messenger. Microsoft developed it in 1999.
Nine nostalgic memories of the IM Apps
The Apps have seen better days, and we have loads of nostalgic memories about them. As we bid farewell to the fallen heroes, here are some of the things I fondly remember:
- ASL? - Do you remember this acronym? This was the standard introduction back then. It meant Age, Sex Location? It was an easy way to find out about others and whether or not you have hit the jackpot of a blonde near you, or a few miles away! Of course, nobody used to answer truthfully.
- When Emojis were referred to as Emoticons! - Before emojis, MSN was using smileys that we could insert in our chats. There was a wide range of emotions that you could use in your conversation. Oh, that good feeling of receiving an emoticon or getting a winking face from your crush. Nothing will ever beat the emoticons!
- BRB - “Be Right Back” damn, we used to wait! Like loyal Labradors, we were waiting for the return of the other guy in the conversation! There was no “blue ticking” back then!
- The Asterisk (*) - The use of Asterisk was the in thing. It has now been replaced by the @ sign in the latest chat apps. The asterisks could litter the entire chat room. This was a discreet way to convey a few swear words.
- Typing on the phone line - Back in the ‘90s, when we used to go online from our landline telephone, it meant that when you are chatting, nobody could receive calls or use the phone. Ohh…kids of today are lucky! These were the days when the cellphone did not exist, and the few that were still being developed could not access MSN directly.
- Sorry, Wrong Chat! - Yet there were moments when we would naturally screw up in our chats by sending a message to the wrong guy. Argh! Back then, you could not ‘delete for everyone’! Not only did this expose that you were talking to someone else at the same time, but god forbid you have sent them an embarrassing message. Sometime you could use the trick to get their attention. I used this so much on my crush back then. Just to get her to chat back. It worked 70% of the time!
- Rushing home to chat with a friend you’ve been with at school - Unusual but true, we would rush home just to catch up with your classmate, with whom you’ve spent the entire day together. This behavior has found its way to the current generation; they would rather text or chat each other up than actually spending time talking to each other.
- Snotty usernames - MSN was the leader in this. People would use weird cocky names like mst_death, crazy_bi3ch, A$$cobar, etc. My neighbor used to call himself kiss-my-ax!
- Putting my status as “away” or “busy.” - This was a way of keeping some prying eyes, or rather, chatterers away! When you want to concentrate on chatting with your crush!
It is hard to imagine that there was a time when Facebook was not our main form of communication. Back then, touchscreens were nothing but a fancy concept, and the devices that we now hold so dear were things that we only watched on fictional movies.
I know the new generation guys are wondering how we used to survive without Facebook back then. Yes, back then, life was organic. Very little technology and the few that we could access had the mere basic functionalities.
Life back then was just ok, with this minimalistic chatting apps. We should thank MSN, ICQ, and AIM for giving us some of the best years of our lives. It helped us vent our thoughts, to strengthen our friendship, and even to tackle individual school assignments together. All we’re left with now is sweet nostalgic memories of the good old days!
What do you remember the most about these three Instant Messaging Apps?
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