..continued from previous post...

...I nearly fell in love with the first woman who spoke to me online, sight unseen. Her looks, whatever they might be, didn't matter. The mere fact that she had spoken to me was sufficient. The mere fact of typing words into a computer to a person claiming to be female permitted me to imagine her anyway I wanted, and I went with it.

I had already begun to understand the interplay between chat rooming and instant messaging.

The chat room was a singles bar which led to the one on one intimacy of instant messaging.

All it took was one woman, I started instant messaging with one woman, and I was hooked. I was willing to instant message anytime, with anyone, from then on. That's how appealing the medium was. At the time I believe AOL had a monopoly on the instant messaging technology, and it wa a big deal to have AOL, just to have IMs.  Thus, by 200, AOL had 17 million members or so, and that would grow to over 30 million by 2005. Then, they lost the exclusivity of their chat rooming instant messaging software, they underwnt a disastrous marriage and divorce to Warner Cable, and facebook came along, and today, evidently, AOL is but a shadow of its former self.

But in 2000 it was hopping, and so was I.....to be continued...