When I started to use the internet in the late 1990s, I also signed up to the Yahoo messenger. It was an easy way to find like-minded people (and attractive girls) before the time of Facebook or Couchsurfing and I made a few friends there whom I later met in real life.
At times, it was nice to go online and see somebody with whom I could chat away the night instead of studying property law. At other times, the constant bleeping and messaging was a nuisance. But always somebody was there. Even if it was 0300 at home, in some distant time zone somebody was awake.
Now when I sign in on my Yahoo messenger, it looks like this:
Empty. Totally empty. Did everybody die? Or did everybody grow up? Or did technology evolve?
Another sign of how relentlessly life moves on. And yes, I know that people use Skype now.
“andreas_lawyer” on both Skype and Yahoo IM
I was stuck in the aol world, and still have aol But now i think that is old school also I stop over at my aunt that is 74 and she was video skyping on her I pad… I think i need to take some classes!
actually Skype is also kind of old-school. Or rather, you use it to communicate directly with people you already know rather than to get to know new people.
It’s a means of communication rather than a social community