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Does Using an AOL Email Address Suggest You're a Tech Dinosaur?

Posted by samzenpus on from the back-in-the-day dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes: Despite years of layoffs and tumbling net worth, AOL seemed to get a new lease on life this week when Verizon bought it for $4.4 billion. But even if AOL's still alive, using an AOL email address has long been seen as a way of signaling that you're stuck in the 1990s. A recent analysis of Dice data found that a mere 1.8 percent of those registering for the site used an AOL address, versus 55 percent for Gmail. For the past several years, Websites from Gizmodo to Lifehacker have all declared that still using an AOL email address is counterproductive, to put it mildly. But is that actually true? Do the people in your life and work actually care whether you use AOL, Hotmail, Gmail, or a custom address, or is the idea of 'email bias' an overblown myth?

12 of 461 comments (clear)

  1. The Oatmeal by alphax45 · · Score: 4, Funny

    http://theoatmeal.com/comics/e...

    --
    K Man
    1. Re:The Oatmeal by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 4, Funny

      Aol users:

      Keeping the
      "h...t...t...p...colon...slash...slash...slash...dot...dot...com..."
      joke alive.

  2. So? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 5, Funny

    My dentist uses an AOL email address and a website that probably hasn't been updated in a decade. I don't care: He's still a decent enough dentist for the occasional drill-and-fill.

    Dentists: Another reason why birds are superior.

    1. Re:So? by DeBaas · · Score: 4, Funny

      on a Cobol devs resume however it's a good sign.

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      ---
  3. Dear Slashdot Readers by dullertap · · Score: 5, Funny

    We here at dice plan to mine your data but it's an awful hassle to analyze said data. Please do that for us.

  4. @aol.com back in the day by WCMI92 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Used to indicate that you are a noob idiot with PC's on the internet.

    Now it indicates that you are STILL a noob idiot with a PC on the internet with gray hair.

    --
    Corporatism != Free Market
  5. I *only* use an aol email address by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Funny

    It has a warm, true sound that you just can't get from today's CD's and digital music.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  6. Compuserve by jfdavis668 · · Score: 4, Funny

    So my CompuServe email address shows that I am old?

  7. Re:What does it say about you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    > I fucking make websites, I don't consume them.

    Other than Facebook, and Mailinator, and AOL, and Slashdot, you don't consume them. And this lamp! The ashtray, the paddle game, Facebook, Mailinator, AOL, and Slashdot.. you don't consume any of them at all!

  8. Re:What does it say about you? by gweilo8888 · · Score: 5, Funny

    You'd think that, but the websites he made were all on GeoCities.

  9. Re:Real men... by FranTaylor · · Score: 4, Funny

    wrong

    real men pay grunts like you to run their email

  10. Re:What does it say about you? by jrumney · · Score: 3, Funny

    Get off my lawn! -- jrumney%slashdot.org%uucp.gateway.bitnet%NET.uu.uunet@uk.ac.earn-relay