When I graduated from high school in 2001 and headed to Western Michigan University, I had no car, no laptop, and no cell phone. A few students had cell phones, and a few more had laptops, but neither of these devices were owned by the majority of the student body. As far as social networking on the internet, AOL Instant Messenger was still the quickest, hippest way to get in touch with friends who were attending different universities, or family members back home. I would guess that I had 50 friends in my AOL Instant Messenger contact list. As there was no all-encompassing search function tied in with AOL IM , and you could only become online friends with someone if you knew their email address, it was quite common to trade email addresses on a slip of paper when you passed friends on campus, or in the hallway at school. It was so exciting to be able to ‘talk’ to friends on your computer by sending messages back and forth as fast as you could type. Eventually, you could choose a default font and text color, and even designate a tiny avatar of your liking. Personalizing your IM experience by adding an icon showing your favorite hobby, in addition to having a unique screen name, and font colors, made IM chat a fast, fun way to express yourself.
This messaging process kept the phone lines free, so if you were still at home, you didn’t have to worry about your parents picking up the line and saying something embarrassing or asking when you would be done with your conversation. If you were already attending college, the wonderment of working on school assignments and simultaneously chatting arose. Perhaps the best part of IM, was that you could talk to multiple friends at once, either privately with four chat boxes across the bottom of your screen, or in a chat room where you could invite several friends into a public conversation.
Fast forward a decade to 2011. Facebook, which was initially created with college students in mind, and more specifically, with pictures in mind, now rules the social networking scene. Prior to Facebook’s popularity with the masses, social networking sites such as LiveJounal, Xanga, and MySpace had followings as well. Xanga and LiveJournal primarily catered to the journaling, or blogging experience. While images could be added to your posts, there was still something missing that the AOL IM generation was so excited about to begin with: “Where can we chat?” With the inclusion of photos, public wall comments, private messages, Notes publication, chat function, and an all-encompassing search function, Facebook took the number one spot.
Facebook usage spread like wildfire and now it is uncommon to find someone who doesn’t have an account. College students only? No. Your online friends list has expanded from your clique in high school, to your college classmates and beyond. Your parents, extended family out-of-state, neighbors, co-workers, and even your grandparents have jumped on the bandwagon. Businesses have also utilized Facebook as way to advertise and get 24-hour-a-day feedback on their products and services. Sharing links and Liking pages has become a way for bands and businesses to not only get there name out there, but also to maintain contact with their fans and customers. Even if you aren’t able to ‘talk’ to your friends or your favorite business owners at a 
moment’s notice, you can always check out their Wall to see all of their latest activity. Facebook offers the culmination of our favorite online functions, and interfaces with our other favorites: Twitter and Foursquare. Now that I have not only a cell phone (I’ve come a long way since my days at WMU), but a Smart Phone, I am able to pull up Facebook everywhere I go. My personal blog, my Twitter and Foursquare accounts all push through to my Facebook page at my choosing. With a social networking site that can carry all of that weight and house thousands of pictures for each of its users, it’s no wonder that the earliest IM users (and everyone they’ve ever met), are now Facebook users through and through.
Great article Deanne. It’s amazing how much more effective we’ve become with sharing information and instant messaging over the years.
I has been so long since I’ve thought about AOL IMing, I can’t believe how far we’ve come. I remember staying up late nights chatting with the boy I had a crush on in class or from high school….waiting for his response right then and there (without the nerves of being on the telephone). It was such a rush. And such a new concept.
Great article to get my memory flowing!!
I remember this all too clearly. After finishing studying at the library I’d choosing to hope on my instant messenger instead of using the pay phone to find out where my friend were. It’s strange to see how in one decade we’ve been able to change communication so drastically. I wonder what the next decade has in store for us.