You won't lose any of your friends on AOL, and you won't have to give up any of the additional features of AOL like the channels menu and your buddies list. You can continue to use AOL and do things the way you always have, and pick up how to use other programs and internet services at your own pace, in your own time. The rest of the internet will let you get at the rest of the information available on it, but there are hundreds of things on America Online that either aren't available anywhere else or aren't as GOOD anywhere else. The file libraries alone are worth holding onto it for. I'll conclude this by saying that AOL has its flaws.
Every network does.
But the summary dismissal of any AOL user as an idiot in the face of a serious and real technical difficulty is just unforgivable. Some of us really need to lighten up.