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AOL made digital communication popular through its revolutionary, instant-messaging system that paved the way for modern-day communication and social media. -
Yahoo was one of the first search engines that allowed for users to search the vast network of online information. -
Google quickly became the world's biggest search engine and is known for its easy-to-consume and easily accessible way of providing information to the user searching its interface. -
LinkedIn is primarily utilized as a professional networking program for companies to post and contact people about positions and opportunities in their companies, and for individuals to post their job experiences and make professional connections. -
MySpace paved the way for many modern-day social media platforms by popularizing features such as customizable profiles and user-generated content. -
Skype revolutionized audio and video calls by allowing people to speak to and see each other from far distances. This paved the way for modern-day video call systems, such as Facetime or Teams. -
As the largest social network, Facebook was revolutionary for its time, as it grew from a network for college students to a global social sharing platform. It is heavily used for marketing and business advertising through its targeted data collection tailoring home pages to each individual user. -
As the largest video-sharing platform in the world, YouTube offers a wide variety of videos and, as of recently, reels that allow for entertainment, education, marketing, and a variety of other communication efforts in video form. -
Now known as "X", Twitter focused on sharing news and public opinion. It is the place that many social media movements originated from because of its emphasis on "hashtags" and its heavy political influence. -
Similar to many key features of social media, feeds were pioneered by Facebook to provide an easy way to consume all of a user's friends' activities and posts in one summary page. -
The hashtag first became popularized on Twitter by user Chris Messina to group together messages, then later becoming popularized by the #sandiegofire event. The hashtag enables content to be categorized and therefore easily searchable, as well as enabling more widespread knowledge as the hashtags can easily be consumed and spread across social media platforms. -
Though the like button was first used back in 2005, it was the establishment of the like button by Facebook that really pioneered this social feature. The like button allows for users to quickly and quantifiably show their support or interest for the content put out by other users. -
Pinterest provides a visual feed of images and videos for people to save and shop for ideas. Unlike many social media platforms, Pinterest thrives on its inspiration of creativity, as users can create "boards" that users can use for future goals, craft ideas, cooking, and many other visions or ideas. -
Instagram popularized sharing photos and videos on visually appealing, individualized, content-sharing profile pages. Instagram popularized "reels", stories, and advertisements that lead directly to shopping websites. -
Snapchat provides a fast and visual way to communicate with others through the stream of picture messages. It popularized the image/camera option of message sending as well as messages that disappear after 24 hours. -
Facebook purchasing Instagram was a monumental moment in that Facebook rid of a major competitor and gained a platform that would allow for a lot of growth and connections through the acquisition of a major tech and social media giant. -
The Black Lives Matter movement, also known as BLM, was a major movement across all social media platforms in which people advocated for racial justice and spread awareness on the current racial climate. -
Tiktok emphasizes the publication and consumerism of short videos for all different kinds of interests and needs. It is known for its "For You" page that utilizes user data to cater a feed of videos tailored to each individual user. -
The #MeToo movement raised global awareness on sexual harassment and sexual assault by allowing survivors to share their stories in an effort to make people feel scene and hold offenders accountable.