AOL: A Sentimental Look Back at 1996-1998
All the talk yesterday of the AOL relaunch made us wax nostalgic about when AOL first came into our lives, forever changing how we spent our school-night evenings, how we talked to crushes (with secret screenames, of course!), and how we first learned to communicate with the world at large through our clunky and loud desktops computers.
When AOL was first introduced it was profoundly perplexing. It had "Channels", "Key Words", and seemed mostly oriented towards adults wanting to check their stock.
The one exception was the incredibly enticing "Kids Zone" section: this consisted, if I recall correctly, of a few sites where you could send postcards of your favorite Nickelodeon shows. The "Teen Zone' had a lot of "study tips" as well as advice on zits and crushes. Which, in 1997, was pretty effing sweet.
Once you installed AOL on your Windows 95, using the AOL disc that came free in the mail every two weeks or so, it was time for the impossibly exciting task of choosing a screename. A screename, as we know now, was a calling card, a way to express just how cool you were; it had to be the perfect mix of hipness, sophistication, and completely arbitrary numbers. Variations of names like "WhasUp1986", "CoolCat582" and "SurfrDude1" were especially popular. And if you ever felt like a change, you could always alternate the random capitalization in your screename: go from "Balplayer888" to "balPlaYer888", and it was like you were a whole new person!
After deciding on a screename and password (the perennial favorite password being asdfghjkl stroked across the homekey), came the minute and a half of expectant agony while your modem oh-so-slowly Dialed, Transferred Data, and finally Signed On.
And then, bliss! You were signed on, and if you were lucky, at least 3 out of your 6 buddies would be online. Didn't matter if "Ghostbumps2" was a weird kid in your homeroom who you never, ever spoke to in person. Talking online was so novel you'd talk to ANYONE.
If there was a particularly good crowd online, you might decide to move into a chatroom, which sometimes took three or four times to get right, because people would inevitably accidentally click out of it, or the "invitation" wouldn't work, or whatever. For days when there was an insufficient number of friends on, you could go into a PUBLIC chatroom, where strangers across America would convene in order to talk about such topics as "PETS", "WORK", "GARDENING" or "FINDING LOVE OVER FIFTY". This was before the era of online predators, where going into a chatroom and making up a completely fake a/s/l was a harmless and entertaining activity. There was so much to do online, and so many people to talk to, that the fun never stopped.
Until it always inevitably did, when a phone call would kick you off line, and you'd scream in anger. Or, worse, your parents would MAKE you sign off because AOL costs by the minute and you're only allowed 30.
What do you remember about your first days on the internet, through AOL? Did you have an embarrassing first screename? Would you clog up your phone line for hours? Spend endless hours changing the color and font in your emails? Leave your favorite early AOL memories in the comments!
Plovgh, the new online farmers market
Who knew that the farming world had a trend? Well, Mallory Sustick, a Brooklyn bartender, works like a dog to maintain, promote and advance the online farmer's market startup Plovgh that began after noticing a need for more local farm market distribution.
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biancaj
December 11, 2009
7:00pm
Ha, I'd like stanley's a/s/l. I heard he's really a big nyc club owner and backer and that's where you guys get all the tips.
miss this
December 11, 2009
7:00pm
this article just made me so nostalgic...i have version 2.7 for longer than i can remember. and then the buddy list came. ahhhh, youth.
Says it Like it Is
December 11, 2009
7:03pm
AOL helped me discover what my "special purpose" was for. I will forever be greatful for that.
GUESTOFAGUEST
December 11, 2009
7:03pm
Aim for life, 4evah. My screen name has and always will be: ashellray Hit me up on aim sometime! Rachelle
joyce carol floats
December 11, 2009
7:16pm
Remember AOL profiles? I do: [www.hair2dyefor.com]
Beat em like they stole somethin
December 11, 2009
7:21pm
I remember I was with my friend's house to hang out for the weekend. He then decided to go into a chatroom and pretend to be a girl and cyber with other guys. I guess he was trying to tell me something else.
Camden
December 11, 2009
7:26pm
My favorite activity was logging onto chatrooms as kokoum77 and talking about the corn harvest, or the big hunt, or the trials and tribulations of teepee repairs. People would get SO pissed as if I was actually convinced that I was kokoum...I know why the grinning bobcat grins suckas!
WallMountedHDD
December 12, 2009
5:22am
Kinda nostalgic. But by the time period you're talking about, AOL was old news to me. I started using it when it first came out for Windows 3. By the time it looked like the first screenshot you used I was on the verge of other services. I do remember when Hometown and free web space first launched. As much as AOL sucked, it was that stupid innovation that got me to learn HTML. Years later...I'm a college-educated web developer. Go figure.
trick
December 12, 2009
10:50pm
ghostbumps2!
nick
January 4, 2011
5:56pm
I loved antagonist, the kids gaming zone..... but more embarrasingly,my screename was BareFists.....it was a karate thing =)
enoughalready
January 4, 2011
9:09pm
hey, I remember AOL. I was Mr Woodman and I wasted alot of time playing 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, generally kicking ass!
MTruper
January 16, 2011
6:29pm
I remember AOL from pre-Windows95. Windows 3.1, AOL was all gray. 14.4 modem. I racked up over $700 one month in per-minute charges. My first online crush was Melanie814. I still have the same Screen Name, MTruper. Now using AIM though. RIP AOL
PageOfSwords78
November 12, 2011
8:27pm
I first joined AOL in 1994. My 1400 baud modem would crash Win3.1, so I used the DOS version for over a year. The access # was long distance, I remember a $300 phone bill my mother made me pay back. For some reason I thought it was worth every penny to chat with strangers as PageOfSwords78! (Completely oblivious to P.O.S.) When I finally got Win95 and could *gasp* download photos, my 16 yo self never had to swipe a dirty magazine again. Around that time, we got a free dial-up account through my dad's office and realized the REAL internet was much better. It took months for them to finally cancel the damn account. Never looked back @ AOL.
Wille Post
November 12, 2011
8:37pm
AOL? I was using is precursor, Q-Link on my awesomely spectacular C-64 HA! During the summer, I'd open the Ice Water Room in chat just to kill some time and keep cool.
near
November 14, 2011
1:15pm
@WallMountedHDD: so you were a hipster way back then? You sound like a really hospitable person.
JC
November 14, 2011
6:21pm
How about NetZero. I remember signing up for it when it was actually free. Ad supported dial up. An amazing way to make slow connection move at the speed of a glacier. Actually had to sign up for AOL when NZ went to charging... Oh the good ol days