Episode Details

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Before status updates, before social media profiles, and before we carried the internet in our pockets, there were away messages.

A few lines of text attached to a screen name.

And somehow, they mattered.

In Episode 4 of Artifacts, Danny Brown explores how AIM away messages became one of the earliest forms of online self-expression. From song lyrics and inside jokes to cryptic messages aimed at one specific person, away messages gave people a small but meaningful way to tell the world who they were.

But this isn't really a story about instant messaging.

It's a story about identity, connection, and a version of the internet that felt smaller, slower, and more personal.

Why do people still remember away messages decades later?

And what do they reveal about the way we communicated before algorithms, influencers, and personal brands became part of everyday life?

Because sometimes the objects fade.

But the feeling doesn’t.

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