In the comfort of their Shores Hall dorm room, junior Sarah Sylvia and senior Leah Eddy chat with friends across the globe by us ing America Online Instant M essenge r. AIM stood as a popula r fo rm o f communicatio n among college students who could not affo rd long-distanc e phone calls. (Pho to by Melissa Wilson) Amanda W hite- Indianapolis. Ind. Child and Family Sciences. Aegina. Jo n W h ite-Fairmounl. III. Computer Engineering. Band. Alpha Chi. Campaigns (Brazil). Alpha Tau Epsilon. Justin White-Frankston. Texas. Criminal Justice. Transfer (Tyler Junior College). Student Impact. Intramurals. Nathaniel Wiewora- Jupiter, Fla. Political Science/History. International Studies (HUG). Honors Association. Band. Forensics Team. Knights. Jolene W illiam S-Rogers, Ark. Public Accounting. Dean'S List. Accounting Society. American Studies. Harding Universily String Quartet. Orchestra. Delta Gamma Aha. J us tin W illiams--Corsicana. Texas. English. Transfer (Navarro College). Alpha Chi. Campus Players. Dean'S List. Intramurals. Meredith WilliamS-Olive Branch. Miss. English Licensure. Sigma Tau Delta. International Studies (HUG). Campaigns (Africa). Dramatics. University Singers. Ryan W illiams-McAlester. Okla. Chemistry. Gedanken Society. Who's Who. King's Men. • • 76 people II brb. k. lata. For people who were not famil– ia r w ith current cybe r trends, this abbreviated conve rsation appea red to be astring of misplaced lette rs. To savvy Intern et users, however, the lette rs formed the familiar lingo between Ame rica Online Instant Messenge r buddies on a computer. AIM became a popular method of communication among fri ends, family members and students at H a rding for several reasons. Inte rnet ac cess and fr ee dow nloadable softwa re we re ,a ll tha t was needed to convenientl y cha t with other users . S in ce A IM w as facilitat e d through an online connection, long– distance phone bills became unnec– essa ry. Ins te ad of e xchan g in g phone numbers, people exchanged screen names. Senior Laura Rhoades enjoyed u sing AIM to communicate with severa l friends a t one time. " I enjoy talking to more than one [person] at a time," Rhoad es sa id. "Sometimes I become too in– volved in talking and neglect my studies, but when a new screen name appears, it is an unexp ected surprise. " Junior He a th e r Thomp s on mad e extens ive u se of the serv ice w hile taking a n online college course la st summe r. " I w as a l r e a dy on li n e fo r sch o ol every d ay, s o I s ta yed logged on to AIM to keep in tou ch w ith friend s in Fl o rida and Vir– g ini a when they poppe d up ra ndoml y online, " Thompson said. Juni or Ka ty Walli s, w ho spent the fa ll semes te r stud y in g a broa d in Flore nce, Italy, too k ad va ntage of the oppo rtun ity t o keep in touch w ith frie nds w h ile over– seas . " Even tho ugh I w a s kind of sad that I would not b e able to see my best fri end s at sch oo l for sev– eral month s, it helped to know I cou ld s t ill talk to the m," Wallis said. AIM e liminated the frust ra tion created from missin g p ho ne calls or rece iv in g prereco rd ed mes– sages on a nswering ma chines be– cause it a llowe d u sers to prov ide update d aw a y messages describ– ing the ir w he reabouts. " It 's pre tt y h a nd y," ju ni o r Aman da Griffin said. " Fo r me it's like a two-way answe ri ng ma– chine. 1 ca n check my friends' aw a y messages to find o u t w here they a re a nd when they' ll be b ack, and they ca n do the same for me. " Despite the conveni en ces, AIM was not a flawless mea ns of ma in– taining re la tionships. The imper– sonal n a ture created from cha t– ting online w a s con si d e re d by some to be a drawba ck to the ser– vice. "Although I'm on it [AIM] all the time, I would ra the r talk to people on the phone/' junior Daniel McGraw said . "On AIM, it is diffi– cult to und erstand what p eople are talking about w hen rca n' t hear the inflection in their voice." -Christy Canady
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