Do you remember… the MSN nudge?

It was the closest thing the internet had to tapping someone on the shoulder, if tapping someone on the shoulder made their chat window shake. One click on the nudge button and your friend’s conversation window juddered about with a buzz, whatever they’d been doing. It arrived for everyone with MSN Messenger 7.0 in April 2005, and it was meant for getting the attention of someone who’d gone quiet.

That isn’t what it was used for. It was used at ten o’clock on a school night, three times in a row, to point out that you were still waiting for a reply. Messenger made you wait a few moments between nudges, so a whole generation learned exactly how long that wait was.

On the family computer in the living room, the buzz had a second meaning too. It was the sound of a parent looking up and asking who you were talking to.

Somewhere, someone’s still waiting for that reply.