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BBS, started by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, let users connect, share files, and leave messages. This was the beginning of online community networking. -
Usenet, created at Duke University, allowed for the creation of large groups for discussion and served as an example for online forums and threaded discussion. -
AOL was the first to make the internet accessible to users with chat rooms, email, and instant messaging. It introduced millions of people to online communication. -
Twitter launched as an ephemeral, short correspondence of 140 characters or fewer. Twitter has become increasingly popular and has evolved into a public community and cultural consumer of information and news. -
Then, the global news feed appeared so users could see all their friends' updates on a single page. This was followed by the advent of algorithm-driven visibility, resulting in impressions irrespective of the flow or order of the content itself. -
Friendster was a precursor to modern social networks, allowing users to create profiles, connect with friends, and influence the design of MySpace and Facebook. -
Facebook, founded by Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard University, improved the experience of connecting with others through cold email, eventually expanding into a global social network.
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MySpace was popular among musicians and teenagers, allowing users to create unique and customizable pages with advanced HTML coding capabilities. This was at the beginning of the social networking phenomenon. -
YouTube was launched. As the first widely adopted and successful video-sharing site, it changed how users consume entertainment, enhancing educational learning opportunities and easing video content production. -
It was Chris Messina who recognized the impact of the hashtag (#barcamp) term on social media, and it was also the term that linked engagement with trends, event-organizing, and social justice and/or activism (#blm).
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Social media also caught the attention of political and social movements, as witnessed when protests in Tunis took place across the Middle East. This hints at the potential for organization and connective labeling through social media. -
Finally, Instagram a photo-sharing app, launched and later added filters and became a significant platform for visual centric storytelling and influencers. -
Something new to consider as an existing format for user-generated content was Snapchat's story, which provided temporary content for 24 hours before disappearing. Facebook and Instagram would then copy this feature themselves. -
Then, TikTok was eventually launched internationally and developed as a short video sharing platform, emphasizing participatory video with elements of due experimentation with a model that encouraged a diverse range of participatory and referenceable short video content. -
An example of a social media event that turned into an international movement was the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which became hugely popular on Facebook and Instagram, highlighting its potential, with millions raised for research in a very short time.