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The World Wide Web goes Public
On August 6th, 1991, the World Wide Web became available to the public. The Web is the foundation of all social media platforms. Without the Web, there would be no social media. This date marks the beginning of a technological revolution. From this day forward, the world would begin to change drastically. Source: https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/08/06/20-years-ago-today-the-world-wide-web-opened-to-the-public/ -
Internet Friends...More than Friends?
Match.com launched in 1995. It was the first online dating platform. Users created a profile and were matched up with other potential compatible users. The idea of dating through an online platform was brand new. It changed the way people interacted and found dates. It paved the way for countless other dating platforms all trying to pair users up with the best compatible mate. It paved the way for apps like Tinder that many college students use now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match.com -
The First Social Media Platform
In 1997, the first social media platform Six Degrees launched. It was named after the "six degrees of separation theory". Six Degrees opened the door for many social media platforms that followed it. Like many social media platforms today, it allowed users to sign up and friend each other. At its peak, Six Degrees had about 3.5 million users. It was bought out in 1999, but shut down a year later. Source: https://historycooperative.org/the-history-of-social-media/ -
Early Legal Issues
Napster was an online music service developed by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. The service allowed users to share MP3 files with each other, no strings attached. It was a free market to share all kinds of music. The only problem was the free part. At its peak, 80 million users were sharing and downloading music. This is one of the first examples of how the internet can infringe on copyright and introduce legal issues. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster -
Growth of Social Media Platforms
In 2002, the social media platform Friendster was launched. This platform continued to shape social media into what it is today. Friendster allowed users to sign up and friend other users, but it introduced the ability to share photos, videos, and comment on friends profiles, similar to media today. Friendster had over 100 million users at its peak. In January 2019, Friendster officially shut down. Source: https://historycooperative.org/the-history-of-social-media/ -
A Space for All
In 2003, MySpace launched as a competitor to Friendster. It quickly gained traction as its public profiles attracted a young, 'hip' audience. From 2005-2008, MySpace was the most visited website in the world. Everyday people logged on to chat with friends, share music, and express themselves. MySpace paved the way for the social media giant Facebook. It is also an example of how social media platforms can go from extreme popularity, to outdated in just a few years. -
The Social Media Giant
Facebook needs no introduction. It is the worlds most popular social media website with over 2 billion active users. Created in 2004, it quickly became the perfect example of what social media is. Unlike past platforms, Facebook continues to adapt and own the social media universe. It shaped modern social media. It has connected people and businesses across the globe. Users poke, share, comment, and post all day. Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Facebook -
Online Entertainment
YouTube launched in 2005. Its founders realized there was no one place to share videos. YouTube became one of the most popular websites extremely quickly. YouTube change the entertainment industry. Users could express themselves and share videos and watch videos in any niche. The average person became an internet sensation overnight. Even popular artists like Justin Bieber got their start on YouTube. It is home to online entertainment. https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/10/the-history-of-youtube/ -
The Early Bird gets the Worm
Twitter launched in 2006. It was a text based social media platform. Users would have a profile and could 'Tweet' basically whatever they wanted to say. A Tweet was simply a message. Twitter was described as the SMS of the Internet. Twitter quickly became a source of quick, up to date information. It also introduced the idea of hashtags. The hashtag is still a social media term used to this day. Twitter shaped modern information exchange. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter -
Social Media Anytime Anywhere.
6/29/2007 marks possibly the most influential date in how social media was consumed. The release of the iPhone changed the world forever. iPhone users could assess the internet almost anywhere now. No longer needing to bring a big laptop around, users can view and post on their social media almost anywhere. Modern social media iOS apps like Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, TikTok, etc. all exist because of the iPhone. https://historycooperative.org/the-history-of-the-iphone/ -
Disappearing Media
Picaboo was created in 2011. It was an iOS app that allowed users to send pictures to each other that would disappear after a few seconds. The company relaunched as Snapchat a few months later. This social media platform was so new. Nothing was permanent. Snaps to your peers disappeared. It quickly gained traction with younger audiences. Snapchat has continued to add features like video, filters, messages, and stories, that all disappear. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/history-of-snapchat -
Social Media as a Business
Vine was founded in 2012. It introduced looping, short videos. Soon the platform had created extremely popular users. Today's top social media influencers like Jake & Logan Paul and David Dobrik got their start on Vine. Vine showed how popularity on a social media platform can become a business. Along with YouTube, Vine was one of the first platforms to introduce the idea of making a living through social media through advertising for businesses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vine_(service) -
Data is King
On 3/17/2018, it was revealed that Facebook had sold Cambridge Analytica data of over 87 million Facebook accounts. Questions arose about the rights of user data, whether it influenced the election, and the reputation of Facebook was at stake. This was one of the biggest user data issues. It brought to light the downside of these monster companies collecting our data on social media. The next weeks were filled with reports, lawsuits, and apologies. The privacy of user data is now so important.
