-
The PLATO system
The PLATO system was founded in the 1970s and was established in 1980. An early social media platform that offered an online chat room, news report, newspaper, blog, and had an access list which is now considered a friend on facebook or a follower on instagram. -
Talkomatic
Created in the PLATO system and was used by their online community. It was one of the first online chat rooms that gave the platform for sites like instant messaging. -
Match.com
Match.com was founded in 1993 and launched in 1995 being the first online dating site and one of the first social media platforms. It is now a dating platform in 50 countries in twelve languages. -
Friendster
Friendster was created in 2002 and was as an online dating site. The site was designed for users to set up their friends. It was one of the first platforms that gave users a status update. -
Myspace
Myspace was created in 2003 and a large commentator for Friendster. The platform of Myspace was very marketable because the users could customize their profiles and it was more about sharing with friends than the online dating site like Friendster. Myspace also had public profiles and Friendster was all private, so it was more appealing to youth. -
Facemash
Facemash was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2003 and was meant to be a Harvard version of Hot or Not. The site was a hit on Harvard’s campus until it was shut down by the school’s administration because it was deemed inappropriate. -
Skype
Skype was founded in 2003 as an application of Microsoft. The application was created for video conferencing, voice calls, and instant messaging. Skype created a huge market for not only businesses, but made a platform for families and friends to stay in touch. -
Flickr
Flickr was founded in 2004 as an image and video sharing site. It is a popular way for amateur and professional photographers to share their work with each other. -
The Facebook to Facebook
When Facemash got shut down, Mark Zuckerberg turned the platform into “The Facebook”. The site was created for friends to follow each others lives from far away. People can now keep up with each other online. When “The Facebook” started gaining traction the “the” got dropped to just “Facebook” in 2005. -
YouTube
Youtube was founded in 2005 as a platform for entertainment. It created many viral videos and was the beginning of people being able to show and sell themselves as a person. Justin Bieber and many more artists were found on Youtube. It is a great platform that launched many people’s careers. -
Reddit
Reddit was founded in 2005 as a social news site created by the users. The users post news stories and vote a thumbs up or down on each of the posts. -
Twitter
Twitter was founded in 2006 originally called “twttr”. The site was founded as a short text message-like platform to share life updates between friends. -
Linkedin
Linkedin was founded in 2006 and was coined the “Myspace” for adults. Linkedin is a business and employment focused site and phone application. The focus is to connect working professionals to each other for career development. -
Tumblr
Tumblr was created in 2007 by 17 year-old David Karp. Karp created Tumblr as a microblogging platform. Users follow other bloggers on the site of like-minded interests. It is a place to share photos, music, fan theories, and more. -
The Hashtag
The Hashtag was founded in 2007 and is a metadata tag used on social media platforms. The Hashtag was a huge phenomenon on social platforms because it links cross-referencing topics to each other. It is a way for people to find things more accessibly. It is also used by creators to help their content be seen more by users they have not reached yet. -
Grindr
Grindr was founded in 2009 being the first online dating platform for the LGBTQ community. The app is laid out so users can see multiple profiles at a time instead of one profile at a time like other dating apps. -
The Influencer
Tanya Burr and PewDiePie were founded in 2009 and showed a new type of star. They talked about beauty and lifestyle as their brand. They both have millions of followers and jump started the lifestyle brand. YouTube was the first social media platform to have influencers and helped gain traction for the modern influencer. People like the Kardashians, Addison Rae, Alix Earl, and Charli D’Amelio are who they are today because of the original influencer on YouTube. -
Instagram
Instagram was founded in 2010 by the company that owns Facebook and Whatsapp. The platform is an app that allows users to show their lives through photos and videos. Each user can have a public or private profile to cater towards each individual user. -
Pinterest
Pinterest was founded in 2010 and was designed for users to share and save content. The platform allows each user to create their own boards to place the content in individual sections on their page. Boards can range from a vision board to funny GIFs. -
Hinge
Hinge was founded in 2011 and was originally a dating site on Facebook called Secret Agent Cupid. It allowed users to tell each other if they had crushes on each other in secret. In 2012 it became its separate app called Hinge. It is geared towards a younger audience and puts emphasis on long-term relationships so you can delete the app. -
Snapchat
Snapchat was founded in 2011 designed as an instant messaging app. The app allows the users to share messages, photos, and videos that will disappear after opening the message. -
Tinder
Tinder was founded in 2012 as an online dating app where the users can look at each profile and swipe right if they like the user or left if they want to skip that user. Each profile has a few photos and a bio to show off who they are in the app. -
TikYak
YikYak was founded in 2013 as an anonymous twitter. Users could send out messages and it would not show who the user is. It was generated towards people in the same location as you. So when YikYak was around it only showed messages from users who were close to you in proximity. The app was shut down in 2017 because of users leaving from bullying. -
Vine
Vine was created in 2013 and was an app where users created six second videos that played on loop. The site created many viral videos and launched many careers for influencers. The app shut down in 2016 because of competition from other social platforms and the company also failed to give their top influencers or “viners” compensation. -
Bumble
Bumble was founded in 2014 and was the opposite app of Tinder where the woman on the platform reached out first instead of the man. The app has a swipe right or swipe left format like Tinder. The app also created a section where you can find friends on the app instead of a date. -
TikTok
TikTok was founded in 2016 and originally it was an app called musical.ly. The original app was created for users to make lip-sync content videos on their profiles. Musical.ly became TikTok in 2018 and is now one of the biggest social media platforms on the planet. The platform uses the entire screen of your phone to show one video and is designed to keep you scrolling through the short videos. -
Be Real
Be Real was founded in 2020 for users to show their real lives on the platform. Unlike other social media platforms, Be Real sends all users on the app an announcement every day saying to post right then and there no matter what you are doing. The app will show the photo of the user and if they actually posted on time with the app. It will show the user's followers if you took the photo an hour late if you do not post on time. It forces the users to be more real with their content.