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SixDegrees.com Created (first social media sight)
The first social media sight, SixDegrees.com is a sight that encouraged the idea that being connected to others was "only 6 degrees away". In other words, the sight only had 6 steps to get connected to others and chat online. -
AOL Messenger Created
AOL is an instant messenger sight that was created for people to message on their computers, much like texting. -
Yahoo! Messenger Launch
Yahoo! started as an email service and search engine site, and later developed an instant messaging portion -
AmIHotOrNot.com
AmIHotOrNot.com was a site used to post a picture of yourself and random people (or people you know) can rate you based on that photo to determine your "hotness". -
Friendster Launch
Friendster launched originally to be a dating site, and transformed into a site to update on someones status and "reveal their mood" -
MySpace Launches
MySpace was the first social media site with customizable pages to allow public viewing of anyones profile and promote the postings of music, videos and life updates. MySpace was "the place for friends" -
Skype
Skype launched as a virtual form of communication via video chatting. This lead later apps like zoom, Webex and even FaceTime. -
Flickr
Flickr launched as a strictly photo/video posting platform for the images to later be used for website etc. -
Facebook Launch
Facebook, arguably the turning point of social media, launched in 2004. Another site used to post photos and life updates for friends, family and others to see. What started as "FaceMash" started by college student Mark Zuckerberg. -
Reddit
Reddit launched as a "news" outlet and has turned into a comedic outlet for memes and photos -
YouTube Launch
YouTube launched as a video sharing platform and has since blown up into one of the most poplar universal platforms. It can be used for entertainment, news, education and has not given video creators a source of income for their videos and some of the worlds millionaires. -
Twitter Launch
Twitter launched and became the most popular and used media outlet of its time. A place to write a thought at any time and share it without repercussion. -
LinkedIn
LinkedIn launched as a business platform to promote onesself and offer paid premiums for users to bring revenue and allow users to find jobs and have a professional profile. -
Tumblr Launch
Tumblr launched and introduced microblogging and a place for users to public anecdotes and fan pages along with videos and other texts -
# "hashtag" storms in
the use of the hashtag broke way in peoples posts and memes as a way to create a popular/viral movement, saying or trend. #hashtag -
FarmVille
FarmVille was a game that launched and could be shared via Facebook as a virtual animal care/farm -
Grindr Launch
Grindr launched as a dating/"hookup" app targeted towards the lgbt community of its time -
Emoji Boom
The emoji or emoticon was a little image used in text to show an emotion like the face with tears and a smile to show laughter and has since developed into thousands of little emoticons used for communicating -
Pinterest Launch
Pinterest launches as a site to post photos categorized. Others can pin posts and create personalized pinboards for ideas or mood boards for motivation, inspiration etc. -
Instagram Launch
Instagram launched as another photo sharing site and blew up into a platform for many people to create personal brands and gain as many followers as possible. Instagram has had many phases from causal insta, to insta-baddies etc -
Snapchat Launch
Snapchat launched as a communicating app where one can send a picture to their friend and it would disappear after 10 seconds of viewing it -
Twitch Launch
Twitch is a livestreaming service where gamers can live record the game their playing with commentary for viewers to watch and streamers can make money from donations from viewers. -
Tinder
Tinder launches as a dating networking app where users can swipe left or right on others profiles to eventually match with others to lead to a chat and potential date to hookup situation, similar to Grindr -
Vine
Vine launched as an easy swipe 6 second video platform typically used to share comedic content. Vines and viners created the realm of famous content creators and broadened everyones potential for becoming famous. -
Musical.ly
After the fall of vine, Musical.ly launched and with it brought a new wave of creators. The app was a lip-syncing video app with trendy songs and camera movements -
TikTik
TikTok replaced musical.ly and is now one of the most popular video apps used. Similar to vine, tiktoks go viral for many reasons and based on an algorithm each person has a personalized page based on past videos they like.