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1970s–1980s The PLATO system
Considered the first online chat room it was a crowd sourced online newspaper. -
1973 TERM-Talk is invented
This allows instant messaging between two individuals -
1980s Bulletin Board System
allowed posting messages for a large group of people to see all at once -
1980s Internet Relay Chat
A grouped based messaging system that also allowed private messaging -
1983 The internet becomes available to the public
The internet becomes available to the public for the first time -
1985 The WELL
One of the oldest and earliest media sources still in use today -
1990s AOL Instant Messanger
Aol was a dial up internet provider and messaging service -
1996 ICQ launches
Coming from israel icq is a very early messaging board -
1997 Sixdegree launches
Sixdegree allowed for adding friends and contacts externally -
1998 ICQ is acquired by Aol
This is the first acquisition of a social media outlet by another company -
1999 Yahoo! Messanger Launches
Yahoo was a very large early email service -
2001 Sixdegrees is shut down
One of the first major social media outlets that shuts down services -
2003 Myspace launches
Myspace was wildly popular in the early 2000s -
2004 Facebook launches
Facebook is one of the largest social media companies to date -
2005 Youtube Launches
Youtube is a platform dedicated to uploading videos rather than just messages -
2006 Twitter Launches
Twitter is one of the most used social media outlets world wide -
2006 Google Buys Youtube
Google buys youtube only one year after launching for $1.65 billion -
2007 The first iPhone is released
The first iphone is released which revolutionized smartphones -
2007 Justin.tv launches
One of the first social media outlets that lets you connect with people live through video on a large scale -
2011 Snapchat Launches
snapchat launches with a new take on sending images to each other, ones that go away after opening -
2011 Twitch launches
Twitch is the predecessor to justin.tv focused on gaming -
2012 Facebook opens shares to the public
coming in at $104 billion it is the highest valuation of a new company stock ever -
2015 Discord Releases
A messaging platform focused on gaming and nerd culture -
2017 Tiktok launches
A media app that only allows certain length videos to be sent, created by china and was under investigation for spying on us citizens -
2018 Yahoo messanger shuts down
This is one of the largest social media outlets to completely shut down services