Chat rooms introduced us to communicating instantly online, for better or worse.
For SqueezeOC.com website and magazine
O-town has entered the chat room
P-phelia: a/s/l?
O-town: 24 / m / santa ana, u?
P-phelia: 13 / f / Irvine. Want to cyber?
After Al Gore “took the initiative in creating the Internet,” Internet service providers sprung forth onto the scene like the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus.
Before widespread adoption of the World Wide Web, Internet access was dominated by the big three: Prodigy, CompuServe, and America Online.
But CompuServe was geeky and Prodigy prudish. AOL, the hip, savvy service on the block, offered its users anonymous handles (names) and the ability to talk to each other in virtual “chat rooms.”
The dating scene would never be the same (or so hordes of geeks and pedophiles hoped and dreamed).
As a natural evolution from the bulletin board systems (BBSs) of the ’80s, chat rooms allowed participants to talk and interact in real-time. And since it was anonymous, you could pretend to be whoever you wanted.
This had some practical applications, like sharing opinions without offending anyone, or role-playing. I remember my brother, “Archmage Ged,” would hang out in a chat room called “Inn of the Weary Traveler.”
On some mornings, though, when he was in private conversation with a “Lady Fyre,” we had to wait outside. “You’ll understand when you’re older,” was the refrain from older to younger siblings everywhere.
Though they are still around today, the popularity of “chat rooms” gave way to instant messaging. Rather than sort through a sea of chat rooms, IM makes it a lot easier to get direct access to your friends and family.
Plus, chat rooms had too many crazies and pedophiles.
AOL already offered IM service to its subscribers in the ’90s, but when ICQ showed up in ’96, offering it for free, AOL followed a year later with AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), offered for free.
The other shmucks followed, with Microsoft and Yahoo releasing their IM programs in 1999. Now everyone has friends using different messaging programs, and we’re still trying to figure out the mess.
