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Here are some thoughts and memories I have about the AOL Screen Name Era of the late 90s and early 2000s, and why it was the most absurd and simultaneously awesome experience that only our generation will have.

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David Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, essays and short stories. He is widely known for his novel Infinite Jest, and his final work, The Pale King, was released posthumously in 2011. Cormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Road, No Country For Old Men, and Blood Meridian.

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Glib, detached, oft taken for granted, the following chat and text acronyms are examined and exposed for both their oblique intent and implication herein.

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But perhaps the most useful and exciting consequence of the rise of connected, text-based communication is the fact that it has allowed people to at last eradicate the horrible and terrifying prospect of ‘talking on the phone to people’.

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People who select “busy” as their GChat status, which turns the circle next to their name red, are not usually busy. When you type something to a “busy” contact, the program warns: “[Contact] is busy. You may be interrupting.” “May,” indeed. If they were busy, they’d be invisible.