#Aim away messages software#

#Aim away messages software#

“It’s hard to understand the AOL software and the social uses of it outside the financial and economic model in which it existed,” Alper said. The Gmail iteration of instant messaging, Google Hangouts (formerly Google Chat), came immediately after AIM, and improved upon its accessibility by situating it within a web browser rather than a software requiring download. Even personal data that we may think of as being ‘backstage’ can be front and center when it comes to how algorithms continually process human behavior online.”Īlthough AIM changed the online game in certain fundamental ways, Alper emphasized that it’s important to consider its place in history within the context of communications technology that came before and after it.įor example, she said, the shorthand way many communicated on Instant Messenger-“LOL” for “laughing out loud,” “g2g” for “got to go,” “ttyl” for “talk to you later”-has its origins in the text confines of pagers and beepers. “One important thing though that is very different now from the early days of AIM is how that information is stored, processed, and shared with third parties. “On AIM, an adolescent could play with literary quotes, share song lyrics, and signal their membership in different peer or friendship groups,” Alper said. What is shared becomes one’s onstage personality. Everything that goes unseen-every dormant Away Message, unflattering selfie, and drafted tweet-makes up that backstage personality. Stored Away Messages, then, offered a backstage purpose, similar to how teenagers today might carefully choose which images to share on Instagram or Snapchat. She explained: “If you imagine life as a theater, we have backstage versions of ourselves, we have onstage versions of ourselves-each one is shaped by who is watching.” “It’s a set of ‘who we are’ being based on how we imagine the audience we’re in front of.” “He theorized that people don’t have just one, single, static identity, but rather a set of tensions,” Alper said.

To understand AIM’s import in identity formation, though, first consider sociologist Erving Goffman’s theory of identity. Their flexibility (being able to change them on a whim) as well as their economy (being able to save a few oft-used messages for recall at a moment’s notice) made them especially apt at breaking down the inside/outside way many characterize their identities. “With AIM Away Messages, you had a semi-permanent place to represent yourself online.”Īway Messages-more often than not consisting of moody song lyrics for angsty teens-were a foray into a new way of thinking about one’s identity, Alper said. “There was really this sense of something pervasive about you on the computer, even if you weren’t there,” she said. Those Away Messages, something of a precursor to tweets and Facebook statuses, were among the first hints of the ubiquitous communication and online profiles we have now, Alper said.

To consider their products “life-changing” is certainly ambitious, but at least in the case of AIM, perhaps not too far off.