Viewpoint: Departing AIM brought instant messaging to the masses, teaching skills for modern communication
(World News USA)

Toward the mid-1990s, America Online (by then going by its nickname, AOL) was the company through which most Americans accessed the internet. As many as half of the CD-ROMs produced at the time bore the near-ubiquitous AOL logo, offering early computer users the opportunity to surf the internet for a flat fee - at the time, $19.99 for unlimited monthly access. With nearly half of U.S.-based internet traffic flowing through AOL, the stage was set for a social evolution of sorts that shifted our... ......