Social Media

Invention of Telegraph

1792

This technology finally offered a "faster than horse" method of communication over long distances and was revolutionary at the time

CompuServe

1960

CompuServe was an American online service provider, the first major commercial one in the United States.

The First Emails

1966

The first emails appeared in 1966, paving the way for the effective communication as we know it today.

UseNet

1979

UseNet allowed people to communicate through virtual newsletters, articles, or posts to newsgroups.

GENie

1985

GENie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange) was an online service created by a General Electric business. It was a critical moment in the history of social media, business and in general. It had 350,000 users at its peak.

Listserv

1986

Listserv was a mailing list that allowed individuals to contact multiple users in one email. This is common today, but it was revolutionary at the time.

The Palace

1994

The Palace allowed users to interact with one another on a graphical chat room server, which they termed "palaces". Each user would have their own avatar overlaid on a graphical backdrop. It is still in operation in one form or another.

Sixdegrees.com

1997

Sixdegrees.com was the first true social media website. It enabled users to upload profile pictures and connect with others. Six degrees also let users make friends with each other and expand their social groups. In 2000, it was purchased for $125 million and shut down in 2001, but brought back a few years later.

Moveon.org

1998

Moveon.org was initially formed as an email group and started out by passing around petitions to oppose the impeachment of Bill Clinton. It later went on to promote general internet activism, such as opposing US military actions abroad, and supporting democratic candidates in the U.S., as well as fundraising.

LiveJournal

1999

Live Journal was of the first blog sites to become popular. It a social network built around constantly updating blog posts. It encouraged users to follow each other and create groups that also interact with one another.

LunarStorm

2000

LunarStorm was one of the first commercial advertisement-financed social networking websites. Platform grew to 1.2 million users and was mostly used by teenagers. The platform shut down in 2010.

Wikipedia

2001

Wikipedia is the world's most popular general reference site on the web. It continues to be a reference for many people today. It's an online encyclopedia that allows anyone to edit.

Friendster

2002

Used for all the normal things, in addition to a dating site and event, band, and hobby discovery service. Shut down in 2015.

LastFM

2002

LastFM was one of the first online music databases and online radio streaming that have become the norm today.

LinkedIn

2003

LinkedIn is a platform primarily used for professional networking and career development.

MySpace

2003

MySpace was a social media platform that allowed people to connect and customize their profile by using music and videos.

WordPress

2003

WordPress is a free and open-source content management system. It opened up blogging for a lot of people and powers a lot of websites today.

Flickr

2003

One of the first popular mainstream photo sharing sites.

Care2

2004

Care2 was the initial Harvard dorm-based version of Facebook. The goal of the site was to connect activists from around the world with other individuals, organizations and responsible businesses making an impact.

YouTube

2005

YouTube is an American online video sharing and social media platform owned by Google. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is the second most visited website, right after Google itself.

FaceBook

2006

Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.

Twitter

2006

Twitter is an American microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets".

Tumblr

2007

Tumblr is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog.

Instagram

2010

Instagram is an American photo and video sharing social networking service founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.

WeChat

2011

Described by some as the "app for everything", WeChat is a one-stop-shop for all things social media. It has more than 1 billion active monthly users.

SnapChat

2011

Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients.

TikTok

2016

TikTok, was first launched by Douyin for the Chinese market, it was later launched on iOS and Android outside of China. It features a variety of short-form user videos, from genres like pranks, stunts, tricks, jokes, dance, and entertainment with durations from 15 seconds to three minutes.