[The profoundly familiar sound of a creaking door opening up]
BAH GOD, THAT’S AOL INSTANT MESSENGER’S MUSIC!!!
After a weeklong competition in which The Ringer and its readers surveyed almost 500 submissions and put 64 elite entries to the test, the beloved and long-lost chat app has emerged as the victor in our Millennial Canon Bracket. AIM left no doubt as it climbed the generational mountaintop: Facing off against a seemingly equally daunting opponent, it took down “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers with nearly 60 percent of the overall vote. That’s the bracket equivalent of a gentleman’s sweep.
You won’t find anyone contesting the results here. AIM makes complete sense as the thing that best embodies the millennial experience. It captures that sensation of being on the cutting edge of technology—communicating in a way that no generation has communicated before—only for that technology to be surpassed in relatively short order, preserving in amber the burst of memories created in that quick span of time. Any millennial who was lucky enough to have a family computer and dial-up internet can easily recall the thrill of sitting at a desk and just waiting for a friend to pop on so that you could talk about anything; the joy of picking the perfect Dashboard Confessional lyric for your sub-profile; the pang of trying to decipher a crush’s away message, hoping that it might somehow be about how he or she like-likes you. AIM sharply captures the border between the old days and modernity that millennials found themselves growing up on, the earnestness that flourished before the jadedness, the sweet spot between being able to connect like never before and knowing way too much about each other. In so many ways, that right there is the millennial experience.
So you go, AOL Instant Messenger. Your time may be over, but just know that you are being honored appropriately. I’m sure there are many of us—mostly all millennials, let’s be honest—who would gladly trade X and TikTok for the simplicity of IMing a close Buddy.
