8G History Lesson 160 Assignment

In this assignment, I will be writing about the history of social media.

Early Years

The first platform that could be called social media was probably BBS. BBS stands for Bulletin Board System. It was a public message board that allowed people to post code, files, or games. It ran on telephone lines and was connected using a modem. Remember, this was before the Internet was invented, so this was a huge thing for people. CompuServe was another similar service, but this one allowed more personal interactions. It was similar to modern-day Reddit. But these services started to fall behind once the Internet was invented.

Internet Boom

During the 90’s and the early 2000s, social media experienced a major popularity surge. Many people started using sites such as Classmates.com, which allowed people to connect with former classmates. Other sites like SixDegrees.com were not as successful. SixDegrees.com eventually shut down in 2001.

LinkedIn and Facebook were 3 major social media companies that emerged during the early 2000’s. LinkedIn was different from the start. It was geared towards business professionals looking to connect with others. LinkedIn is still around today, and it has more than 1 billion members!

Facebook is probably the most popular social media website in the world, currently with around 3 billion members! It was created in 2004 as a way for Harvard students to communicate, but in 2006 it was made public. Facebook’s success comes from its easy to use interface, and its popularity and advertising.

The Mobile Era

Following the rise of smartphones and tablets, social media quickly hopped onto these new devices. Snapchat and Instagram are two major social media apps that revolve around users taking photos and sharing them. Apps like TikTok that allow people to share short videos are also popular.

Who knows how social media will change during the next few years? We’ll just have to wait and see.

8G History Lesson 155 Assignment

In this assignment, I will be covering the culture of the 1990’s. I will be writing about the music, tv shows, clothing styles, and Y2K.

Music during the 90’s

Popular styles during the 90’s included grunge rock, hip-hop, rap, pop, and heavy metal. Popular bands included Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Wu-Tang Clan, Mariah Carey, The Spice Girls, Green Day, and the Backstreet Boys.

TV, Movies, and Sports during the 90’s

There were many popular TV shows during the 90s, but here are some of the most popular: “ER” was a drama show watched by millions about a hospital emergency room. “Law and Order” was another famous drama, but it focused on the interactions of police, judges, and criminals. In comedy, many people enjoyed watching “Friends” and “Seinfield”. “The Simpsons was and still is a very popular animated comedy show, but its humor is generally more for adults.

In the movie theatres, films like “Titanic” and “Jurassic Park” were smash hits. “Titanic” is about the Titanic that sunk because of an iceberg. “Jurassic Park” is about the world after dinosaurs have been brought back.

Basketball fans cheered on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, who won 6 championships in the decade. Many MLB players went on strike in 1994, resulting in the World Series being cancelled.

Clothing Styles during the 90’s

Clothing styles were similar to the 80’s, most people dressed casually. Jeans and a t-shirt was not an uncommon outfit. Some people opted for a more bold look, with styles like punk or grunge being trendy.

The Y2K Scare

The Y2K scare was a series of computer bugs that were feared to occur during the turn of the century. Since many computers at that time stored the year as 2 digits (for example the year 1999 would be 99), people thought that computers all over the world would crash because they couldn’t process the new date, 2000. In reality, nothing major happened, because so many businesses and people installed new software features that protected against the bugs.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post about the culture of the 1990’s.