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BBS
Bulletin Board Systems- First form of social media that allowed communication with others through simple messaging boards. -
sixdegrees.com
Creation of the first social media site. Users were able to upload a profile and connect with others.
Fun Fact: The name comes from the idea that everyone on the planet is separated by no more than six degrees of separation. -
AOL Instant Messenger
Aol instant messenger was released. -
Hot or Not
AmIHotorNot.com? was a website that allowed users to upload photos of themselves and others to rate them on their attractiveness levels. Many say this website was inspiration of Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook. -
Friendster
Friendster took it further than sixdegrees.com and allowed users to meet new people within online social circles. The site took off because it enabled global communication and it was ahead of its time. Friendster was later shadowed by the rising Myspace and Facebook. -
Linkedin
Business social networking site, Linkedin was launched. This site still holds value as a professional business networking/connection platform -
Facemash
Mark Zuckerberg created facemash as a rising rival of "Hot or Not". The site was created at Harvard and initially only for the use of Harvard students. -
Myspace
The first social media platform to reach a global audience. Had a large significance on influencing technology, pop culture and music at the time. -
The Birth of Facebook
Zuckerberg's "Facemash" officially becomes "Facebook" after gaining it's one-millionth user. -
Reddit
Reddit is a massive online forum where users share content and discuss nearly any topic in communities called subreddits. As of February 2025, reddit is the ninth-most visited website in the world -
Youtube
YouTube is a video-sharing website where users can upload, watch, and comment on videos in unlimited numbers of categories. It has anything from music videos and tutorials to vlogs and documentaries, uploaded by people, companies, and media companies. It has over 2 billion monthly active users and is a massive entertainment, education, and social influence network. -
The rise of Twitter
The first tweet every posted was by co-founder,@JackDorsey. Meant originally for chatting, twitter became a place for people to share thoughts, feelings and minor life updates. -
The hashtag was born
Twitter stood out for its 140 character limit for posts and also when it adopted the hashtag. Hashtags are still commonly used today to spark movements like #metoo and #Blacklivesmatter. -
Tumblr
David Karp and Marco Arment launched Tumblr. Tumblr was set apart by its multimedia sharing and highly customizable user interfaces. Aesthetics and appearance of profiles was very prominent. -
Instagram
Started by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Instagram was initially named Burbn. Instagram reached 25,000 users on it's first day. -
Twitch
Twitch was officially launched in 2011, as a spin-off from Justin.tv. Users can live stream, live chat. Users can clip parts of the streams to upload later, they can also record and save their streams to upload for users not watching live. -
Snapchat
Founded by Evan Spiegel, snapchat was very common within the youth communities. Snapchat features disappearing messages that made it unique amongst competitors.The app has managed to survive evolving media trends and still has over 500 million active monthly users. -
Google+
Google plus was google's attempt at a social media platform. It's downfall was it lack of differentiation from the social media big names and the fact that it synced every google related account for each user. These accounts included Youtube, Facebook,Myspace etc. This created a mess for many. -
Slack
Slack offered users a way to communicate in the professional setting.Differentiating from linked in by it's ability to socialize internally, within corporations as well as similar slack groups. -
Vine
Vine launched in January 2013. Consisting of a six-second looping video format, vine took the internet by storm. Twitter bought the app for $30 billion. Vine fizzled out due to Snapchat and Instagram launching their own video sharing features. -
Musical.ly
Musical.ly was a short-form video app known for lip-syncing and dancing videos. Very popular amongst the teenage audience. Ahead of modern day Tiktok but very similar. -
Twitter Doubles Character Limit
With twitter falling behind, they chose to double their original 140 character limit that initially set them apart. -
Tiktok
Started in China as "Douyin" and later rebranded as "Tiktok" for international markets. Tiktok took the pandemic by storm and had many people in a chokehold.The app now has over 1 billion monthly users. -
Facebook Data Privacy Trial
It was leaked that Facebook allowed a reporter from Cambridge Analytica to harvest data from over 50 million users without their consent. -
Instagram Reels
In order to compete with the booming Tiktok, Instagram introduced its reels feature in 2020 -
Twitter becomes "X"
Elon must started a $44 billion takeover of twitter in 2022. Musk said he bought Twitter to promote free speech, reduce censorship, and create a more open digital public square. On January 23 2023, twitter officially changes its name to "X".