Bring back the MSN days

Before the invention of Facebook messenger there was MSN.

They mass-produced the emoji which has revolutionised our generation’s conversations since the invention of smartphones. Whether it was winding up SmarterChild, setting your status to “away” to ignore people or just chatting shite for hours on end, MSN was a rite of passage for teenagers in the UK and I wish that the chat-logs were still available today.

The patter

If you gave a “random add x” then the only way to introduce yourself was through an “ASL?” and if the conversation was going dry then a quick get out was the good old “BRB” or “G2G”. The worst response you could give though was simply “lol” – you knew the convo was done at this point and you should just move on.

It didn’t matter if you were talking to your bf/gf, your best mate or even some random you just added, the initial conversation etiquette was always the same. Oh, and if they patched you? You spammed them with nudges – we seriously need these back in the next iPhone update.

Cam4cam?

Many a teenage boy back in the day would be asking for cams. You would spend hours grafting in the hope of getting someone to go on. This would mostly never happen, or when it did it would be strictly platonic, but there was always that rare occasion when you’d get lucky (6). Of course, when you did it all your pals would be with you pretending to have left the room so that the poor girl would think it was just the two of you. Snapchat revolutionised the game and this generation don’t know how good they have it.

Pls

Appearing offline and online to catch your crush’s attention

So you like a guy/girl but you don’t want to come across as too interested – you want to play it cool and wait for them to make the first move. What do you do? You appear offline and online multiple times until they pop up and say hi. If they suspect your methods then you simply blame it on a dodgy internet connection.

Playing the waiting game

Your “addy”s

To get MSN you needed to have an email address but you couldn’t simply just use your name -you’re cool, fun and original and you can do better than that. Fine examples such as [email protected] and [email protected] were all the fashion. The real heroes are the people who still use these on job application forms and have yet to come into the adult world.

Embarrassing

The PM

The most stressful part of MSN was deciding who or what you put in your PM. Would you choose some lyrics from your favourite song or names/messages? Lyrics were good but sometimes cliché and adding in names was always risky. People would often get offended as to what order they appeared in the PM or what emoji was used for them – if someone wanted a love heart next to their name then you knew it was true love.

Conclusion: bring back the MSN days.