053 - On AOL Instant Messenger - May it Rest in Peace

Hello Zengineer Friends!!

This week we're diving into text based digital communication!! Hooray. Yeah, we're excited too. What's that you ask? Texting? Yeah, kinda. Tweets? Yup, sorta. Email? Of course...

We've been inspired by the deprecation of one of the earliest forms of mass digital communication, AOL Instant Messanger (AIM). Yup, that one with the yellow running man icon. We both used it extensively as kids and into college, but whatever happened to it? Well, it was totally dicontinued just a little while ago, despite having previously enabled hundreds of millions of people to communicate every day.

In this episode, we dive into a little bit of the tech, a little bit of the nostalgia, and whole lot of the thrill of communicating with others. We trace the history of text based messages like AIM all the way into the weird world of today where you can send an "instant" digital communication to a space station in orbit, and get a response immediately. Crazy. We know. Overwhelming. Absolutely. Incredible. You betcha!!

Was anyone really still using AOL IM in the current world of endless digital communication utilities? Email, Slack, text message, Facebook messanger, Twitter ... the list goes on and on and on. What do these systems all have in common? Why are we so obsessed with cycling through these varying communication methods, and why does it happen so rapidly and so consistantly? Is it true that communication has driven every techincal advance throughout history? Well ... Maybe ... Kinda ... Listen and find out!

As always, let us know what you like, or dislike on our website, rate and review Zengineering on iTunes, and support Zengineering on Patreon.

Cheers, Adam & Brian