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Complete History of Social Media: Then And Now

May 8, 2013 by Drew Hendricks In Social Media 31

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Interacting with friends and family across long distances has been a concern of humans for centuries. As
social animals, people have always relied on communication to strengthen their relationships. When
face-to-face discussions are impossible or inconvenient, humans have dreamed up plenty of creative
solutions. Avalaunch Media recently unveiled their Interactive Infographic entitled, The Complete
History of Social Media.

History of Social Media: Then And Now

The roots of social media stretch far deeper than you might imagine. Although it seems like a new trend,
sites like Facebook are the natural outcome of many centuries of social media development.

Social Media Before 1900

history of social media2

The earliest methods of communicating across great distances used written correspondence delivered by
hand from one person to another. In other words, letters. The earliest form of postal service dates back
to 550 B.C., and this primitive delivery system would become more widespread and streamlined in
future centuries.

In 1792, the telegraph was invented. This allowed messages to be delivered over a long distance far
faster than a horse and rider could carry them. Although telegraph messages were short, they were a
revolutionary way to convey news and information.

Although no longer popular outside of drive-through banking, the pneumatic post, developed in 1865,
created another way for letters to be delivered quickly between recipients. A pneumatic post utilizes
underground pressurized air tubes to carry capsules from one area to another.

Two important discoveries happened in the last decade of the 1800s: The telephone in 1890 and the
radio in 1891.

Both technologies are still in use today, although the modern versions are much more sophisticated than
their predecessors. Telephone lines and radio signals enabled people to communicate across great
distances instantaneously, something that mankind had never experienced before.

Social Media in the 20th Century

history of social media3

Technology began to change very rapidly in the 20th Century. After the first super computers were
created in the 1940s, scientists and engineers began to develop ways to create networks between those
computers, and this would later lead to the birth of the Internet.

The earliest forms of the Internet, such as CompuServe, were developed in the 1960s. Primitive forms of
email were also developed during this time. By the 70s, networking technology had improved, and
1979s UseNet allowed users to communicate through a virtual newsletter.

By the 1980s, home computers were becoming more common and social media was becoming more
sophisticated. Internet relay chats, or IRCs, were first used in 1988 and continued to be popular well into
the 1990s.

The first recognizable social media site, Six Degrees, was created in 1997. It enabled users to upload a
profile and make friends with other users. In 1999, the first blogging sites became popular, creating a
social media sensation thats still popular today.

Social Media Today

history of social media4

After the invention of blogging, social media began to explode in popularity. Sites like MySpace and
LinkedIn gained prominence in the early 2000s, and sites like Photobucket and Flickr facilitated online
photo sharing. YouTube came out in 2005, creating an entirely new way for people to communicate and
share with each other across great distances.

By 2006, Facebook and Twitter both became available to users throughout the world. These sites remain
some of the most popular social networks on the Internet. Other sites like Tumblr, Spotify, Foursquare
and Pinterest began popping up to fill specific social networking niches.

Today, there is a tremendous variety of social networking sites, and many of them can be linked to allow
cross-posting. This creates an environment where users can reach the maximum number of people
without sacrificing the intimacy of person-to-person communication. We can only speculate about what
the future of social networking may look in the next decade or even 100 years from now, but it seems
clear that it will exist in some form for as long as humans are alive.

YouTube came out in 2005, creating an entirely new way for people to communicate and share with each
other across great distances.

Reply

Juan

July 26, 2016 at 10:03 am

While CompuServe was a form of computer networking it was not a part of the Internet, at least initially.
It was really a glorified BBS.

Reply

Aaron

September 29, 2016 at 1:46 pm

As a communication historian who studies the history of networked personal computing, I feel obligated
to note that there are many errors in this explanation of social media history. If high school or college
students are considering citing this in an academic paper, I encourage them to find a different source.

The problems? A few are listed below.

1) CompuServe was not part of the Internet.

2) The Internet began as a network to link research institutions in 1969, and it was called ARPANET.

3) USENET was not a virtual newsletter. It was a protocol that enabled the creation of distributed
discussion groups (conferences). It was also used to distribute binary files that had been encoded into
ASCII text.

4) The system Community Memory (1972 1973) was one of the very first forerunners of social media.

5) Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) offered much of the same functionality that we associate with social
media.

I am posting these comments because many students have been citing this page as a credible source and
it is flat out *wrong*.

Reply

Bereket

June 24, 2017 at 5:45 pm

Where is HI5 and QQ? They where established in 2004 and 1996

Reply

Stewart Ogilby

October 21, 2017 at 9:31 pm

Correction. The first online social media website: emailclub.com

Put it into the Wayback machine.

Reply

mariel suse

October 24, 2017 at 7:32 am

I am confused of when did really social media started. cause I need it for my paper. Would you mind to
help me? Thank you

-Mariel

Reply

Ben Jamin

November 12, 2017 at 12:23 pm

This is one of the laziest articles ever. Did your English teacher even require you to cite sources? Not
even 1 fact is provided for todays. If I were your boss, Id fire you. And least make you re-write this
articles s provide something useful. I hope I wasted as much of your time as you did mine. Ill go do real
research now..pathetic excuse for an author

Reply

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