Stored Away Messages, then, offered a backstage purpose, similar to how teenagers today might carefully choose which images to share on Instagram or Snapchat. She explained: “If you imagine life as a theater, we have backstage versions of ourselves, we have onstage versions of ourselves-each one is shaped by who is watching.” “It’s a set of ‘who we are’ being based on how we imagine the audience we’re in front of.” “He theorized that people don’t have just one, single, static identity, but rather a set of tensions,” Alper said. To understand AIM’s import in identity formation, though, first consider sociologist Erving Goffman’s theory of identity. Their flexibility (being able to change them on a whim) as well as their economy (being able to save a few oft-used messages for recall at a moment’s notice) made them especially apt at breaking down the inside/outside way many characterize their identities. “With AIM Away Messages, you had a semi-permanent place to represent yourself online.”Īway Messages-more often than not consisting of moody song lyrics for angsty teens-were a foray into a new way of thinking about one’s identity, Alper said. “There was really this sense of something pervasive about you on the computer, even if you weren’t there,” she said. Those Away Messages, something of a precursor to tweets and Facebook statuses, were among the first hints of the ubiquitous communication and online profiles we have now, Alper said.

To consider their products “life-changing” is certainly ambitious, but at least in the case of AIM, perhaps not too far off.

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