It’s hard to imagine a world without social media. Today, we use social media mainly to connect with new friends, our families, the rest of the world and all that comes along with it.
Social media has been in existence for around twenty years. Before that methods of staying in contact with friends and loved ones over long distances were not nearly as simple from the first postal system in Persia in 550 BC, the use of Telegram which started in the 1840s to the invention of the telephone in 1876.
However, in the 20th century technology began to advance at a rapid pace. In the 1940s, the first super computers were created. And as technology developed further, networks between computers were also created. Personal computers made their first appearance in the 1970s and continued to develop with advancing technologies. This was the start of the rise of online communication which eventually led to what social media is today.
1970s
In 1969 almost all discussion of social media began with the invention of the Internet and CompuServe, the first major commercial online service. CompuServe created the first public network and dominated the online market for more than three decades.
1971 finds Raymund Samuel Tomlinson. He is credited with sending the first email using a program known as ARPANET. And in 1978, Michael Hall created Project Gutenberg, a project to digitize all books in the public domain. They currently have 48,000 books.
Also in 1978, this is when historians date the beginning of social media with the birth of the BBS – the Bulletin Board System. The BBS was used to download software, read news on bulletin boards and exchange messages.
In 1979, the idea of Usenet was conceived. A discussion system on computers similar to what BBS is, Usenet officially established in 1980. It is considered as a precursor to what we know now as online forums and contributed to what online interaction is today.
1980s
In 1985 the whole earth ‘lectronic link or Well was created as the Internet’s first virtual community providing email and web pages to its users.
1988 found the next big development and probably one of the most significant things that contributed to social media development – the creation of the IRC or the Internet Relay Chat system. IRC developed the Internet’s first chat rooms and popularized social media.
In 1989, Tim Berners Lee proposed to the management of CERN that they create an information management system based on links in reliable text otherwise known as the World Wide Web.
1990s
One year later, we see that the Internet hits 2.5 million users worldwide and in 1991, while working for CERN, Tim Berners Lee again creates the first web page on August 6 1991. The page is a directory of links that explains the inner workings of the world wide web project.
1993 was when Mosaic was developed, becoming one of the most popular web browsers of its time. The name Mosaic comes from the concept of combining multiple internet protocols using FTPand NTP and gopher.
In 1994 Justin Hall created Justin’s links from the underground as a guide to the world wide web and eventually started to share details about his daily life. And thus, the blog was born.
Founded in 1994, the globe.com was created by Cornell students Stephan Paternot and Todd Krizelman as one of the first social networking services on the Internet. And in 1995, David Bohnett and John Rezner created Geocities which is the first Internet community. Geocities eventually became the third most visited site in 1999.
Released in 1996, ICQ instant messaging became the first downloadable messaging system to popularize real-time chat in individual windows. And then in 1997 Hotmail became the first internet-based email system.
In 1997, based on the concept that there are only six degrees of separation between any two individuals, the website sixdegrees.com became a wildly popular social networking site. And then in May of 1997 saw the birth of one of the most popular software of all time, AOL Instant Messenger which made instant messaging a household word.
In 1998, in one of the most historical moments of the Internet, a new web browser to eclipse all other Internet corporations was developed – Google.
1999 saw the birth of one of the most popular blogging sites ever – Live Journal. This popularized blogging by providing free and simple authoring tools. Also in that same year, Blogger becomes a blog-publishing site that allows multi-user blogs with time stamped entries
1999 also saw one of the most controversial moves in social media history when Napster was established to allow its users to peer-to-peer share music files and software. Later they had to deal with a significant amount of legal troubles with copyright infringement.
It was also in the same year that social networking grew to an astounding 70 million computers linked.
2000s
Before the likes of MySpace and Facebook, Canadian engineer Jonathan Abrams created a modern-day social network in 2002. Friendster was the first social networking site to hit 1 million members.
2002 also saw advances in the music social network. Last.FM, a UK-based firm allowed users to develop their own radio stations based off a musical recommender system known as audioscrobbler.
2003 introduced us to LinkedIn which captured the social networking market by providing professional pages for those who wish to network themselves. As of today, 80% of employers state that they use LinkedIn to determine their new hires.
Launched also in 2003, MySpace held the reins as the top social network between the years of 2005 and 2006 even surpassing Google as the most visited site in June of 2006.
Skype was also released in 2003 and forever changed the concept of video conferencing. The interface allows users to communicate through audio and video.
February 4, 2004 is a date that will be taught in future history classes as we come to understand the impact that Facebook has had on our society. As of 2021, there are 2.8 billion users on Facebook who have active profiles.
2004 also saw the invention of podcasting, which allows users to publish video blogs or instructional content to the Internet. In this year Flickr was also created and shortly became a social phenomenon.
In 2005, one of the greatest things on the Internet was released – YouTube. It started as a little video publishing site created by two former PayPal employees.
July of 2006 saw the invention of the open chat in the form of tweets posted and distributed by Twitter. Currently there are almost 200 million daily active users on twitter with over 500 million tweets sent out per day.
In 2007, Tumblr launched as a microblogging platform that operates as a social networking site and in 2015 there were about 200 million tumblr users.
2010s
2010 introduced us to Pinterest and became the Internet’s first bulletin board that’s actually a bulletin board. Others can post linked images to their boards and follow other users’ postings and profiles.
In October of 2010, Instagram became the next big player in social networking. Originally launched as a photo sharing site with unique stylized filters, it eventually challenged Facebook for supremacy with users growing in number since it was launched. Currently, there are more than a billion Instagram users all over the world.
In 2011, Snapchat was created as a method to share impermanent photos with a social network of friends. In 2014, Snapchat users were sending 700 million posts per day.
In 2012 popular dating-oriented social networking site, Tinder was launched and sparked another type of social networking use specifically catering for those looking for romantic connections.
June of 2012 saw the founding of Vine, a short-form video sharing site that allows you to record, edit and publish 5-6 second clips.
From 2014 to 2017 we see more social media applications popping up like Musical.ly Discord, Triller and currently one of the more popular ones, TikTok. Most recently, an audio chat social networking platform called Clubhouse, was launched in 2020.
Present Day
Today, there are a huge variety of social media sites and applications for various purposes. For many, social media is a way to stay in touch with friends and keep in contact with family members who live far away and share photos, videos, information, news and views. For others, it is a source of information, entertainment or just a tool for plain relaxation.
With all the advancements in technology and the creative ways people think of to connect with others, the growth of social media is possibly endless. Once in a while there are social media platforms popping up and while some are able to establish themselves as household names for users, others fizzle out in popularity. Some things just come and go. That’s really how it is. However what does not change is the main purpose of social media which is connection – to friends, family and the rest of the world, and because of that social media is most definitely here to stay.
