I recently came across a picture on 9gag stating the fact that MSN messenger is being turned off forever. Although it felt like it was a long time ago since I last used it, the fact that it is now being removed, brought back a lot of memories. I remember all those hours spent using it to chat with friends or family or those late nights playing games.
I would say that anyone who grew up in the 1990s and early 2000s would argue that it was essential to his or her online habits and the fact that the latter generations won’t get to experience this is very sad. I keep looking back at how communication was back in the days compared to now, and how much has changed since then. I really do appreciate how far we’ve got and how advanced we’ve become, but somehow I get a feeling that communication was valued much more back when MSN messenger still existed. Taking your time to actually sit down and chat with friends or family, whereas now you’d send that email or text message and wait for whenever the recipient has time to reply.
These new platforms for communication are completely different and change the whole initial idea in the sense that we no longer have to chose between doing one thing or the other, instead we can multitask. Although, this is very helpful at times, I’m undecided on what I prefer – making sure that no one in the house uses the phone so I can go online, or chatting while stuck in traffic?
It’s not only technology that has changed, so have we and with the disappearance of MSN messenger, comes the fading of humanity and our values…
-The reader is an Emirati engineer based in Abu Dhabi
