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America Online, known as AOL, first started as Quantum Computer Services in 1985. In the 1990s, AOL's dial-up service became the internet. It combined e-mail, chat rooms, and more. In the early 2000s, AOL had more than 30 million subscribers around the world. It was discontinued in 2017. -
SixDegrees is known as one of the first social media platforms. It allowed users to send messages and post bulletin board items. They set up the contacts in the first, second, and third degrees. The first-degree connections were those you were connected directly to, second-degree were people who weren’t directly connected to, and third-degree were people who were connected to your second-degree connections. Since it was way ahead of it's time, it fell quickly, shutting down in 2001. -
MSN Messenger was first released in July 22, 1999. This allowed users to video chat alongside instant messaging. It was rebranded to Windows Live Messenger in 2005 and was officially shut down in 2013. -
Myspace was a social media platform that was popular from 2005 to 2008. It allowed users to create profiles that featured photos, showed their interests, and linked to others profiles. Users were able to keep in touch with friends, meet new people, or connect with romantic partners.
Myspace lost around a million visitors in 2008 and 2010. -
Facebook is a social media platform that became one of the largest at the time. You can create profiles, upload photos, join or start groups, and post a status. In 2005, it allowed users to tag people in photos, allowing them to identify themselves and others in an image. In October of 2021, Facebook announced that it was changing its parent platform to Meta Platforms. -
YouTube was created on February 14th, 2005. It is a free video sharing website/app that allows users to watch videos online. You can create and upload your own videos to share with others. YouTube makes it easy to find videos online and there is always something new to watch. It also tailors the home page related to videos you have watched in the past by the same creators or ones similar. -
Starting as Twitter on July 15, 2006, it was used as a free and public SMS platform for users to share short and real-time status updates with friends and groups. In early 2010, it allowed companies to easily advertise and interact with customers. On October 27, 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter and changed it to “X” on July 23, 2023. -
Facebook added notes on August 22nd, 2006. This allowed users to write long-form posts. They also allowed users to add photos, videos, and links as well. They removed this feature on October 31st, 2020.
Since then other platforms have picked up on this feature including Instagram, on December 1, 2022, and TikTok, on April 18th, 2024. -
Instagram came in 2010 as a photo-sharing app. It was used to share personal moments and filtered photos, but has grown into more. In April of 2012, Instagram was acquired by Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms. In 2023, Instagram allowed users to purchase subscriptions to become verified on the app. In April of 2024, Meta AI was launched within the app. -
Snapchat was created as a way for users to share moments without the fear of it being permanent. The app allows users to send photos and videos, known as “Snaps”, that disappear after being viewed. They were one of the first social media platforms to introduce “Stories” in 2013, which allows users to share moments that are visible to friends for 24 hours. -
Pinterest was created for an easier was to share recipes, DIY projects, parenting hacks, inspiration for style, and so much more. With the app you are able to save photos and create different boards of things that you like. Once you add something to a board, more ideas will curate from the things you have saved before. It was used as a way to overtake physical media, such as magazines. -
Stories were first added on Snapchat in October of 2013. This was to introduction temporary social media, instead of just sending a video or photo that could only been seen a certain amount of time, it was to share it with everyone but it would only stay for 24 hours. This was also to keep up of real-time documentation on social media.
In August of 2016, Instagram decided to add stories as well. -
Musical.ly started as a way for users to create, share, and discover video-based content. When founder, Alex Zhu, seen young people lip-syncing using their front-facing camera, he came up with the idea to combine music, videos, and social networking all in one to attract early-teens.
In 2018, ByteDance bought them out and became TikTok. -
In late October of 2016, the Mannequin Challenge was created by a group of high school students in Jacksonville, Florida. They filmed themselves freezing like mannequins and uploaded it to social media. It went viral quickly and became very popular by November of 2016, with even celebrities participating. It was also paired with the song "Black Beatles" by Rae Sremmurd.
This was a big part of social media at the time and allowed some creators to gain fame. -
Instagram launched threads on July 5, 2023. The app was used to compete with X, formerly known as Twitter, and a way to combine Instagram's community-building features with text-focused conversations. 100 million people started using the app within five days of its release. Currently, it's popularity has slowly died down because it is seen as more bland since they are stricter than X.