Anti-AOL

Don't get me wrong: I'm not against my own blog. The longer I own it, the more I like the darned thing. It helps AOL users who the call reps at AOL are either incapable of helping, or else forbidden to help, since they have to make their sales quotas. No one can overestimate how good it makes me feel.

What I have become sorely, vehemently against is people who look down their noses at those among us who "still" use AOL. It burns me. I used AOL...if I hadn't, this blog would never have existed.

I'm unhappy with the reporter who I spoke to the other day. If I were to tell you who I spoke to at the Wall Street Journal there might be a few ooh's and ahh's, but I wasn't impressed before I spoke to her (I called her after she emailed me for a phone chat), since I tend to be cynical about mainstream media, and I'm much less impressed now. The story is not, as I led on earlier, so much about this blog, but I don't want to blow her lede in case the WSJ runs the story, so I'll just mention what bothered me most.

Sample Questions

"So...what do you think of people who still use AOL? I mean, isn't it like, wow, get with the times already?"

I don't look down on anyone simply because they "still" use AOL. First of all: I used to use it, and the last time I checked, that didn't make me a slobbering idiot. Second of all: my friends, including people who have helped me get jobs, people who have comforted when I felt like I was falling apart - people who mean the world to me - "still" use AOL. They might be techno-phobes; they might be computer-illiterate; they might be both, but none of those conditions makes them either dumb or willfully ignorant. They just don't know much about ISPs and email services until someone tells them or they finally find out for themselves. I don't see why people should be made fun of for such things - does not knowing much about the Web automatically make you "stupid"?

"So do people still email you from aol.com email addresses? Really? What do you think of them?"

Again she was angling for snark, and again it bothered me. I explained to her that if you're having a problem canceling AOL but haven't set up service with another ISP yet you're pretty much going to have to email me from an aol.com address.

"Free AOL email...a lot of people use that, don't they? Aren't there better options, though, like GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo! and so on?"

Now my face was turning red. Though I was quick to agree with her that there are better options than keeping your aol.com address, I was barely able to keep my voice from shaking as I said, "The thing with free AOL email is...it's free. So why not keep the free address once you cancel your account? Plus some people have used AOL for years - sometimes 15, 20 years - so their contact lists are extremely long...not being too computer or Internet savvy they don't know how to update everyone with their new email address...so they just stick with [their old one]."

At that point, I hate to say it, I was rolling my eyes and wondering how long it would be before we hung up.

I sat at my computer editing the layout you see here for a few hours after our call ended, just rolling around what we discussed. And that was when I decided I was done with snark. Yes, I'm against AOL - as much now, with every drop of energy I have in me, as I was in late 2005 when I started this blog -but I am not against anyone who "still" uses it. My job - the one I gave myself years ago - is to show people why AOL sucks - not belittle them for their choices.

So count me against anyone who's against anyone else who "still" uses AOL.