What happened to AIM?
Four years ago, the biggest difference I would make in peoples’ computing experience was switching them from AIM to gAIM. The latter is an open-source alternative to the bloatware that is known as AIM.
Before we go any further, we have to draw a distinction between the software and the server. The server is stuff like AOL, yahoo, MSN, ICQ, Google, and Skype. They host your screen name, and all of those people you talk to. The software is the *interface* with which you talk to them. This distinction is one that continues to confound the computer-illiterate. See my future post to help figure out whether you’re computer-literate or not…
Three years ago, I told people to use their AIM screen names but switch to gAIM. It’s open source, it’s extensible, and it’s got no bloat-ware like the AIM version 5+ shit. aim: gaim :: internet explorer : firefox.
But things have changed. I still use Pidgin (gAIM changed it’s name due to some lawsuit; Pidgin still rules), but my buddy list looks different.
A couple years ago, it was dominated by AIM screen names. In high school, I didn’t have a *huge* number of buddy list friends, but I had a lot, probably over 100. Today, I can probably point to 6 people I regularly see on AIM. It would seem nobody uses it. In fact, two days ago I changed my facebook “messenger” name from megatron490(@aol) to arjunsharma33(@gmail).
One thing I still wonder is how and why this happened Certainly a number of my high school friends abandoned AIM in some sort of effort to act like they were really *grown up* or *indepenedent.* Fine. These same people didn’t join facebook. And some of them really did grow up.
But then I see my sister still showing up on my buddy list. She’s 20. And her friends still use AIM all the time. I asked her for her gChat name 6 months ago; she still cannot produce one. She has 100+ AIM friends, like I use to.
I can’t help but wonder why my buddy list is 85% gChat addresses, while my sister’s is 85% AIM addresses. All I know is that the future is google: no ads, no need for external software, video chat enabled, and fully logged conversations. Anyways, offer thoughts re: googlechat vs aim in the comments.
