Timeline of Social Networks By johsua Jan 1, 1979 First site with login for interaction Jan 1, 1980 First online chat Jan 1, 1988 File and link sharing in online chats Jan 1, 1996 Emoticons and abbreviations become popular Jan 1, 1997 First social network is created (Six Degrees) Jan 1, 1997 Ability to add friends is added Jan 1, 2002 Popular social media launches (Friendster) Jan 1, 2003 Photo sharing and friend groups introduced Jan 1, 2003 Private messaging and public posts on profiles are introduced with Myspace Jan 1, 2004 Facebook is created for one university Jan 1, 2004 New photo sharing platform (Flickr) Jan 1, 2005 New video sharing platform (YouTube) Jan 1, 2005 New popular social media is introduced (Reddit) Jan 1, 2006 Facebook becomes most popular social network Jan 1, 2006 New popular social media is introduced (Twitter) Jan 1, 2007 New popular social media is introduced (Tumblr) Jan 1, 2012 New popular social media is introduced (Snapchat) Jan 1, 2013 New platform for sharing short videos (Vine) Jan 1, 2017 Vine closes