I remember when DMs were called PMs. In hindsight, that shift in the vernacular seems insidious.
Discussion
why?
PMs stood for private messages if I remember correctly? But then the standard term became DMs: direct messages. It seems that in many ways, for many years now, we've been subtly primed to accept the stripping of our privacy.
I don't think they ever were necessarily more private. If anything, it's probably just a more accurate term.
Right. I don't think they were ever private. The shift in terminology has always seemed interesting to me, though. I'm probably overthinking it.
It used to just be messages.
Instant messages was also a common term before PMs
Facebook named their messages "private messages" to trick people into thinking they were private. They never were.
DMs were never called PMs.
Only Facebook called their messages "private messages" because they are dishonest and trying to trick their users into thinking they were protecting privacy.
Before Facebook or any of these others even existed, we had instant messages on msn messager.
Instant being the alternative to sending an email.
Ah, okay. So it was only ever a Facebook thing? Makes sense. Did they popularize the change in terminology from PMs to DMs?
True and some people try everything to bring this dystopian stuff to the next level.
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Back in the AOL and Yahoo days, they were IMs. "Instant Message" was a fair term at least back then.