Online dating is pretty much the norm nowadays, but back when the internet was first becoming popular, it was really just a bunch of crazy kids experimenting with chat rooms and instant messages to connect with others around the country and globe. For a shy teenage girl with no dating experience other than a boy in 7th grade running up to her locker and asking her if she’d go out with him (then running away cackling as it was clearly on a dare), it was a whole new world. This is the totally true story of how America Online landed me my first boyfriend.
Back in the late ‘90s, I was hanging out at my best friend’s house like normal. She was showing me some pictures of an event she went to with her brother’s boy scout troop, and some pictures in particular caught my eye — a boy in her brother’s troop that I thought was cute. He didn’t go to our school, so I didn’t know who he was.
That summer, it was time for a family road trip. Being a teenager, the idea of spending a whole road trip with just my family was, of course, unthinkable, so I managed to get my aforementioned best friend to come along. Most of the trip is now a blur, but one part remains crystal clear as it was what would propel this whole story forward. One night, we were at an overnight campsite in a ramshackle cabin, giggling over boys, and we had the idea to write silly anonymous letters to all of the boys in my friend’s brother’s boy scout troop.
Well, almost all anonymous letters. Because when it came time to write the one to that boy I had seen in the photograph, I was like, “wouldn’t it be fun if I wrote this one as myself?” Oh really? Very sneaky, very under the radar here, girl. So I wrote that one letter as myself, and gave him my AOL screen name, saying he should instant message me sometime. This was before everyone had cell phones, you guys, so writing a letter to connect online was truly pioneering, you know?
We came home, and now it was time to wait. Would he message me, or would I wait in vain? Now, this was back in the days of dial up internet, and luckily we had a separate phone line (OMG what are phone lines?) for the internet, so I wasn’t kicked off because someone needed to use the phone. So there I sat in the family den, because laptops were so not a thing yet, waiting ages for pages to load on AOL on our snazzy blue first generation iMac, when lo and behold, a new person messaged me. It was him. My plan worked!
We talked for hours, days, weeks, on AOL, about all sorts of things. But would we ever meet in person? We were teenagers, he didn’t even have his license yet, and like I said, we didn’t go to the same school. So, my best friend and I concocted another plan for a first in-person meeting. She found out he was going to be over at her house to help her brother with something for the boy scout troop, so we decided I would go over there as well under the pretense of helping my friend with some homework. Mind you, my friend and I, despite being best friends, never had a single class together in high school, so there was no homework we actually shared. Of course, he didn’t know that.
We met, it was awkward; there were many furtive glances and not much actual talking. But soon after, back on AOL, we decided to go on a real date. That date led to more chatting and more dates, and an official boyfriend/girlfriend declaration.
So, there you have it. I don’t know that I ever would have met my first boyfriend had it not been for America Online. Thanks, AOL, for helping the teenage years of this shy girl be exciting and fun by making communication with boys much more attainable. I salute you.
Did you use AOL to try to woo a potential boyfriend/girlfriend? Let us know in the comments!
- America Online began in 1983, as a short-lived venture called Control Video Corporation (or CVC), founded by William von Meister. Its sole product was an online service called GameLine for the Atari 2600 video game console.
- In February 1991, AOL for DOS was launched, followed a year later by AOL for Windows.
- AOL charged its users an hourly fee until December 1996, when the company changed to a flat monthly rate of $19.95.
- In 1997, about half of all U.S. homes with Internet access had it through AOL.
- In 2001, AOL merged with Time Warner and in 2006 the company retired the name of America Online to now just be known as AOL, but then in 2015 AOL was bought by Verizon. What a journey!
- AOL began in 1983, as a short-lived venture called Control Video Corporation (or CVC), founded by William von Meister. Its sole product was an online service called GameLine for the Atari 2600 video game console.
- In February 1991, AOL for DOS was launched, followed a year later by AOL for Windows.
- AOL charged its users an hourly fee until December 1996, when the company changed to a flat monthly rate of $19.95.
- In 1997, about half of all U.S. homes with Internet access had it through AOL.
- In 2001, AOL merged with Time Warner and in 2006 the company retired the name of America Online to now just be known as AOL, but then in 2015 AOL was bought by Verizon. What a journey!
