By Andrea Josic
On at least one occasion, you’ve experienced somebody trying to reach out to you in every way possible. Just glancing at your phone’s notifications containing 15 text messages, three Snapchats, an Instagram direct message and a Twitter mention from one person is enough to make you reminisce on the simpler days of instant messaging.
In the times before children were born holding cell phones and thriving off virtual interactions, we would take whatever we could get. Thus came our short-lived time with MSN Messenger.
The year is 2009 and I have come home from an emotionally exhausting day – trying to convince my fifth-grade crush to play grounders with me. My attempts were unsuccessful. Defeated, I retreat to my bedroom to toss a coin in the air 100 times for my math class probability homework. Halfway through, I begin eyeing the door. How likely is it that my crush will be logged on MSN right now?
I run into the computer room. My parents have recently moved onto newer, trendier desktop computers, no longer the massive desktop of a Microsoft computer that would clank and sputter as I turn it on.
I log on to MSN and my crush isn’t online yet. I set my status to “Busy,” trying to appear mysterious amongst my other 12-year-old friends. I google the lyrics to David Archuleta’s song “Crush” and copy and paste it into my status bar, hoping I’m not making my feelings too obvious.
I waited patiently, chatting with my other friends until a textbox appears: “Your crush has just signed in.”
I set my status to “Online” and then it happens. The unmistakable MSN message notification sound.
That night, I went to sleep with a smile on my face. Life was good.
My crush and I spent the rest of Grade 5 talking through MSN Messenger. To this day, if my crush hadn’t gone to a different middle school, I truly believe we would have had a long, fruitful relationship.
I raise my glass to MSN Messenger, the platform that brought together more lovers than Tinder ever will. RIP MSN Messenger, 1999-2014.
Eliz
Msn plus 2007, when coloured nicknames and emoticons were all over the place <\3 not to mention the blogs related to it…