either making the move and just IM-ing him myself or B. So, instead of doing the normal thing and A. I mean, c’mon, he totally loved me back and was dying to talk to me, right? If I logged on to AIM and John Doe was already on and didn’t IM me within seconds, I was convinced that it had to be because he didn’t notice I was now online. 4. Sign on & off repeatedly just to catch my crush’s attention… So what did I do? I’d make the background of my profile black, and I’d write 1443 (which stood for ‘I love John Doe,’ obviously) also in black, this way you couldn’t see it… unless you highlighted my profile. But, I had to be nonchalant about it - I had to play it cool. What I do know, is that I always had a crush, and I always had to give him a secret shoutout on my AIM profile, because #soulmates.įor example, if I was hopelessly devoted to John Doe, it didn’t matter that he had zero clue I existed, he was still getting an honorable mention. Maybe 13-year-old me was just a hopeless romantic, or maybe I was a raging lunatic - I’m still not really sure.

Why I thought pretending to be depressed and heartbroken at that time was cool, I will never know, but that’s what I went for - and I went hard. This meant that sh*t was about to get real and there was absolutely no stopping me. 2. When I got real away messages, it got even worse…Įventually, I convinced my dad to loosen up on the parental controls (that or I hacked his screen name and did it myself - either/or), and at last, I was finally able to have a real away message all my own. When they did, I would paste it, send it, and try to pass it off as a real away message. Then, I’d copy it and sit there waiting for someone to IM me.

No, no one ever actually called me Mickey) :” then proceeded to write whatever I wanted my “away message” to be. I typed out “ Auto response from LilMickey2Cute4U (yes, that was really my screen name. I got the bright idea that I didn’t need a real away message, and I came up with the most ratchet solution during a time when I didn’t even know what ratchet was yet. While it may seem like a little thing to the outside world, to me it was earth-shattering so, I had to do something - I had to take matters into my own hands. Strict, much? So while everyone was writing “OuTtIe * HiT tHe CeLl <33,” little ol’ me didn’t even have the option of making an away message. Not only did my mom and dad not get me a Sidekick, but they also had some serious parental controls on my AIM account. Here are 6 embarrassing things I used to do on AIM that I am still not over (and probably never will be)… 1.

#DeprivedĪlthough I’m well aware that everybody’s actions on AIM were pretty cringeworthy, I’m convinced mine took the cake, and after reading this, I’m sure you will be too. To this day, I still remember how badly I wanted a Sidekick so I’d be able to take my riveting AIM convos on the go, and I can’t lie, I’m still pretty pissed at my parents for never getting me one. I lived for hopping on the computer and getting to chat with all of my friends because c’mon, that was the *~*cOoLeSt~*~ thing to do. The internet was definitely having many, many feelings about this decision, and took to Twitter to bid a fond TTYL to AIM.Back in my junior high school days, AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) was my sh*t, and just like everybody else at that time, I could not get enough. Michael Albers, communications products VP at Oath, explained, AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed. 6 that it will officially be shutting down AIM in December, forcing us all to bid an emotional goodbye to the little yellow man that was probably responsible for causing 99 percent of middle school drama. You know, just in case you've too sufficiently buried away the emotional pangs of adolescence.ĪOL announced on Oct. Now that the instant messaging service is officially shutting down this year, it's time to look back on some lyrics for AIM away messages that we all probably, most definitely used as some point. It was the best way to like *super* casually ask your crush for the math homework, gossip about middle school life with friends, and maybe, occasionally slip into an R-rated chat room just to see what the deal was. If you grew up in the '90s or the early '00s, AIM was probably your lifeblood.

Find old aim away messages