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AOL Instant Messenger is officially dead. It was created in October 1997 by AOL and it used to be one of the most popular instant messaging services that allowed users to communicate in real-time.

From the late 90's to the mid 2000's it was the leading instant messaging application in North America but as other social networks started to appear, like Facebook and Twitter, AIM lost popularity leading to its shutdown in December 2017.

Although, nowadays, almost anyone uses it, the ''old school'' users are feeling sad and very nostalgic about this whole situation. They feel that this is ''the end of an era'' and it trully is.

We live in a world in constant change. What appears to be new and trending today, tomorrow will be old and forgotten. AOL said in a blog post ''AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with eachother has profoundly changed'' and their response to why AIM is being shutted down was ''Our focus will always be on providing the kind of innovative experiences consumers want. We're more excited than ever to focus on building the next generation of iconic brands and life changing products.''

It's all about the innovation and in an universe as competitive as the technologic it's hard to keep it interesting. Facebook is huge now but in ten years it might not be as popular as it is today or it could be already discontinued. We will never know. 

Jorge Marage

https://mashable.com/2017/12/15/aim-has-officially-died/#VyxOLZb1WPqW

Around 3 Billion people, 40% of the world population, spend, in average 2 hours every day, on social networks.

But, what are the consequences of this use? Could we be sacrificing our time, mental health and well-being just to keep up with everything that is constantly bombarded towards us?

BBC Future did some research and collected information concerning a few of the aspects and symptoms that might influence our experience when connected with social media.

In what concerns the stress, some people use social networks as an escape for reality and as a way to get rid of the daily stress. In 2015, researchers of Washington DC made a survey of 1,800 people and the results were interesting. Women were reported to be more stressed than men, but they also concluded that social media use was linked to ''modestly lower levels'' of stress.

Anxiety is also usually linked with social networks, especially Twitter, but nevertheless, the results show that, altough people who use seven or more social media platforms are more than 3 times likely to have high levels of general anxiety symptoms in comparison with the ones who only use 2 platforms, it's unclear if and how social media causes anxiety.

Depression is considered linked with social media by several studies. It was discovered that depression symptoms such as low mood and feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness, were linked to the quality of online interactions and that there is a higher risk of depression between those who use the most social media platforms. The reasons suggested for this situation were the cyber-bullying, having a distorted view of other people's lives and feeling that social media is a waste of time.

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Presently, one is exposed to Media in all of its forms on a daily basis. This overexposure has made it so that the human psyche is metamorphosing in terms of its employment in perceiving society and indeed, life itself.

In a society steeping with billboards, screens, radios and headphones, one can find oneself perpetually fenced in a world conceived by Media. Such can in some cases create a rut, in which one is bombarded with Media in its myriad of forms throughout the day, eagerly awaiting a moment of peace in which one can "disconnect" oneself. Howbeit, said bombardment can, in other cases, create a thirst for further exposure, thus spawning the archetypical dependency of the Media addict, who will subconsciously check their smartphone every other minute for seldom no reason at all. Yet, what is it that lays in the genesis of this phenomenon?

Humans are prone to search, to inquire, to explore and most importantly, to interpret. Such stems from humanity's fear of the unknown and, simultaneously, from its tenacity and will to confront the unexplored in order to discover and then attempt to understand what new knowledge has been unearthed. Therefore, one might become intrigued, even if ever so slightly, upon seeing something as common as an advertisement about a new, state-of-the-art product. Thus, one can argue that, due to our detachment from the "real" world, Media is now becoming the main stimulator of our senses and nearly the sole provider of what we hear and see, and so they continuously devise new products, new formats, new amenities, new standards, new habits, and thusly new ways of life. All in an effort to give people more to interpret and more to consume.

Nevertheless, one can colloquially say that "more is less". Economically speaking, the supply (Media) is beginning to exceed its demand. The effort made by Media to keep us "fed" has had, in some cases, quite poor effects. People who are saturated with information can become impaired in terms of critical thinking for one can only discern and decipher so much One can see the effects of such represented in a recent psychological ailment known as SMO (Social Media Overload). One becomes overstimulated by Media to such a degree that one grows weary of Media exposure and becomes consequently jaded. Hence, one then attempts to pay little to no attention to one's surrounding world, becoming dissociated from it. 

 Pedro Carlos