"It's like a chapter of my life is dead..."

So the other day I was thinking about what I used to do before wireless internet and the invention of social media. I used to sit on the internet, tying up the phone line for hours using AOL Instant Messenger to talk to my friends and join the AOL Chat Rooms to make new friends. If you are around my age, 22, you will remember lying about your age and location to people you would meet online to make yourself seem more appealing. Part of going in these chat rooms, for me, was defying your parents because if your mom was anything like my mom, you knew you were going to get into trouble if you were caught "IMing" people you didn't know.

After reminiscing about the "good ol' days" I decided to find a chat room. When I clicked on the room I had visited as a child, a message popped up saying that due to the decline in traffic that all AOL Chat Rooms had been closed. WHAT?!?!?! What has happened in America that I cannot get in a chat room and meet some strangers? I know this doesn't sound safe, and it's probably not, but I was kind of disappointed when I got word that something in my past was dead and future generations wouldn't get to feel what I felt when I had been apart of these rooms.

Along with finding out that chat rooms had died, I was talking to a friend of mine about AOL Instant Messenger the other day because it popped up when I restarted my computer. I noticed for the first time that absolutely no one was online except for SmarterChild. SmarterChild was a screen name on AOL that you could "IM" and they would play games with you. I decided to see if this was still the case and got the message "My brain is retired but watch some cool videos! Send an IM to GossipinGabby and Type VIDEO!" Turns out that SmarterChild has been offline since May 2009. I loved playing the games and especially just messing with the computer on the other end. Here is an example I found online of people messing with SmarterChild:

courtjester5000: I hate it when people use up all my printer paper.

SmarterChild: Oh yeah?

courtjester5000: They think paper just grows on trees or something.

SmarterChild: They think paper just grows on trees or something? I dunno.

courtjester5000: Do you have any of those trees growing in YOUR backyard?

SmarterChild: Have any of those trees growing in your backyard? I'm pretty sure I don't.

courtjester5000: Me either.

Now we have Facebook Chat instead of AOL and wireless instead of dial-up. I don't know about you, but I kind of miss the opportunity to make a sandwich while my computer connected to the internet. Not really, but you get the idea.