Recently American Online (AOL) made a stunning announcement: they’re shutting down on September 30 – this year. As in one month from now! What had once been THE email service for many internet users has apparently run its course and – like most lifelong politicians – is no longer relevant.
Introduced in 1991, the screeching sound of AOL dial up served as the soundtrack of those early days of the cyber universe. I definitely remember it! AOL came with my first personal computer in March of 2000. The “You’ve got mail” voice alert was exciting at the time.
The influx of broadband remedied the nails-on-chalkboard tone that signaled a connection to the internet. But, as with dial phones and 8-track tape players, AOL may have become a victim of technology. It’s just what happens with technology and trends.
Despite my initial love for AOL, I had two major clashes with them; the second of which severed our relationship forever. In February 2004, AOL published a piece on how Christopher Columbus allegedly used Leap Year Day of 1504 to trick the indigenous Taino people of Jamaica into providing food for him and his stranded crew. In the comments section, someone posted a completely unrelated remark; something to the effect of “no one has suffered like the Jewish people.”
I have no idea what prompted it, except ethnocentric arrogance. But I replied with a remark that included the term “politically correct bullshit”. Apparently that hurt someone’s feelings, so they reported me to AOL who promptly deleted the verbiage and suspended me from commenting for a short period. In other words, AOL did something that reeked of juvenile behavior – they put me on “probation”.
“Excuse me?” It was bad enough I could hardly understand the customer service representative through her heavy accent. Like several U.S. companies at the turn of the century, AOL had outsourced their technical support and customer service to India and other parts unknown. But, when she told me about the probationary status due to my foul language, I retorted, “You don’t place me on probation! I place you on probation!” I was a paying customer, plus the U.S. Supreme Court had already ruled that foul language was protected speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution. Neither truth would change their cyber mind.
Seven years later I committed another more egregious act – in the minds of AOL leadership. I emailed a nude image of myself to a close friend in a joke message. This time it was AOL who got their feelings hurt and literally shut down my email address. I had to scramble to find another service and settled on Gmail. But I kept thinking – if everyone who used foul language or sent a nude photo got banned from the internet, well…you wouldn’t have an internet!
My father – who was born in 1933 – told me that, as a kid, he thought the voices he heard from the radio were from tiny people inside the device. Radio was a popular form of technology in the 1930s and 40s. Then television, then computers and now…well, who knows what will come up in the future.
Goodbye to AOL. And life continues. Like technology itself, it always does.
Chief Writing Wolf 