


Long before MySpace introduced the Top 8, AIM allowed you to organise your friends into categories. If you picked the wrong username, you’d be cursed with looking at it every time you logged on, and still, there were many “RockChick12182” or “CoolDude9082309” names. Remember staring at that username screen for minutes on end, trying to work out what you wanted your username to be? It was important to pick the right one, because this would represent who you were to your AIM friends. Let it never be said people don’t love the Running Man! 3. The logo was ditched in 2011, but returned in 2013 after an outcry.
FIND OLD AIM AWAY MESSAGES SOFTWARE
It was quickly called the “Running Man” by fans of the software and became irrevocably associated with AIM itself. It was created by JoRoan Lazaro in 1997, accompanying the initial release of AIM. Originally, the AIM logo didn’t actually have a name. The AIM logo isn’t actually called “Running Man” Nevertheless, it quickly set about establishing a dominant position in the market, beating out competitors like ICQ and iChat to become the premier instant messaging service (until MSN, of course).
FIND OLD AIM AWAY MESSAGES WINDOWS
There wasn’t much fanfare around the original AIM it was an app for Windows that was pretty much dropped onto the internet. Predating MSN Messenger by two years, AIM got its debut back in 1997. AIM was discontinued in 2017…but there’s a catch 1.

"Brb, showering" or "Brb 1 min" (followed shortly after with "K, back"), because you obviously couldn't have anyone wondering about the lag time in response when you left the room for more than a fraction of a minute. The Can't-Go-5-Minutes-Without-An-Away-Message Message at least until you could reconcile and re-tape his picture back up in your locker alongside Jared Leto's. "ily Matthew <3 - forever." Of course, that message very likely changed at least three times a semester to something along the lines of "heartbroken 3 Matthew". The In Love 4 Lyfe ReminderĬonsider it the '90s equivalent of shouting your love from a mountaintop - there was no better way to alert the world to the fact that you had the best BF or GF ever was to "tag" them in your away message, i.e. It looked a lot like "Bored as a mofo, someone IM me!" Or there was the more passive-aggressive variety, like "So mad right now! Don't IM me," that, while screaming "Don't talk to me," obviously meant "IM me right this very second so I can vent." 3. This was the default away message whenever you weren't actually away but were more than likely staring at your screen waiting for your crush from third period to log on. I don't think any '90s kid made it out of the decade without at least one away message that read "Don't cry because it's over smile because it happened" or "LiFe'S nOt AbOuT tHe BrEaThS wE tAkE, bUt ThE mOmEnTs ThAt TaKe OuR bReAtH aWaY." Clearly, we had a lot of time on our hands, because painstaking typing in alternative upper and lower case is incredibly time-consuming. In that spirit, come ROFL with me as we take a look at nine classic away messages from yesteryear, with a little help from the hilarious Twitter account. And although it has since been made all but obsolete by other more modern platforms, it's fun to look back on the days when the hardest part of creating an online profile was deciding which color to make your Comic Sans. So, regardless of how silly our lingo and elaborate handles back then seem now, it doesn't change that it was the social media of choice at the time - all the cool kids were doing it. It essentially served as our training wheels for Snapchat and Instagram and, well, texting as a whole. Really, AIM was cutting-edge technology at the time. The very sight of that little yellow running man icon or the tell-tale sound of a digital door opening floods me with memories of crafting what I believed to be witty little away sentiments under one of the many ridiculous screen names I rocked during that decade (CactusJane? Verboden Slyph?). I'll be the first to admit that I was the queen of AIM back in the day. Get ready to toe that fine line between nostalgia and mortification, because today we're going to explore away messages you definitely used in the '90s.
