AIM will be discontinued on December 15, 2017
I just logged into AIM for the first time in probably a year. I was hit with this very comforting feeling of seeing my Buddy List populate (I'm amazed how many people are signed on right now...) and seeing how I used to categorize my friends into lists back in my adolescence.
AIM was a huge part of my social life growing up. There was no Facebook or Instagram and text messaging was just getting around to being cheap enough to do on the regular (used to be charged per text). AIM was the communication tool of choice and the one that probably, at least for me, made talking on the phone a thing of the past.
This year, on December 15, 2017, AOL will shut down AIM permanently. At least ICQ is still around...?