Remembering Chatrooms

WHEN I GOT my first computer and got online, AOL was king of the internet, and aol chatrooms were the internet's hippest social networking tool. I hope i never forget my excitement at taking the machine home, unwrapping it, setting it up, turning it on, and discovering aol.

This was the year two thousand, and membership in aol was something like seventeen million, and would eventually grow to over thirty million. It seemed to be an amazingly quick way to meet people, and filled with incredible potential.

Soon after going into the chatrooms i began to see that there was something fascinating going on here. People oll over the united states, with their names in a box on their computer screens, talking to each other. I was amazed and fascinated; and soon, quite addicted.

I spent hours in fron of the computer, reading the dialogue as it entered from the bottom and rolled up the screen, and exchanging IMs (instant messages) simultaneously. It made for a great deal of drama...and chaos.

Young, beautiful women willing to be friendly online with a forty five year old bachelor were ubiquitous, and it was addictive. One could initiate and develop many relationships, simultaneously.So many americas of all kinds were doing this -maintainting multiple "serious" relationshps online- that the term "player" gained prominence.

The term could have applied to nearly everyone, because the the appeal and temptation of "playing" were irresistable. Nobody escaped it, save for a weird few. I did this, and rather early realized the endless pitlike nature of it, and also, its potential; as a story.

Of all the dozens of people i met in aol chatrooms i only met a small few in person, but it was worth it. Its always worth it to meet people, and aol chatrooms were as good a way as any - until we ruined it.

Evidently chatrooms are not at all popular now, and that's really too bad, in my humble opinion. Possibly facebook replaced chatrooms; facebook is perhaps a gentler, less volatile way of social networking, whereas chatrooms were anything but gentle and less volatile.

Chatrooms are/were a very clever way to bring many people "together" in real time on the internet, and as far as i know none better has yet been invented. So, perhaps chatrooms will make a comeback some day - everything seems to , in america - if enough people start missing and longing for the intimacy and immediacy they afford.

Maybe chatrooms are just too social, too real, too close for us americans right now.