Instagram introduces AIM away messages, brought back 90's memory

AOL Instant Messenger was available AT FIRST. Actually, that wasn't where it all started. It was preceded by Talkomatic, Compuserve's CB Simulator, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC). But for the average person, AIM opened the door to constant, real-time internet contact.

This month marks the 25th anniversary of AIM's debut. It launched me into a world of infinite pixels, never-ending distractions, and a preference for boring screen names (my only embellishment was my basketball jersey number, tacked onto my initials). A live social network was also present. 

Millions of us rushed to our seats as a digital door creaked open to check who had just logged on and who was available for conversation.

I'm missing Away Messages. The abstraction of this nostalgia is deep; I probably miss the novelty of the internet in the 1990s as much as missing simply being... away. However, the focus of this article is on the Away Messages themselves—the snippets of code used to build Maginot Lines around our availability. 

Years before either MySpace or Facebook existed, an Away Message was a text box with endless possibilities. An Away Message served as a boundary because it was completely visible to the individual before they IM'd you, in addition to appearing as a response to their IM.

But following the terrible demise of AIM, we were disoriented and broken. The hole was not filled by tweeting. The Away Message seemed unlikely to ever be imitated since it was so special and one of a kind. 

People always believed iMessage should have reinstated it, but they never did. Hope was gone forever. Up until this week, when Instagram abruptly reinstated the away message. It's amazing.