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.