History of Social MediaBy Camryn Heister

Social Media are websites where people can interact among each other. They can share and discuss using a mix of personal words, pictures, videos and audio.

There are many forms of social media such as forums, blogs, social networks, etc. Some well known social networks are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest.

1978Two Chicago computer

hobbyists invented the

bulletin board system

(BBS) to inform friends of

meetings, make

announcements and share

info. This was the

beginning of the first

virtual community.

9192This led to more opportunities for online communities to be born. In 1992, Tripod opened as a community online for college students and young adults. This was a foreshadowing to what would come later, Facebook.

9194Beverly Hills Internet (BHI) started a website called Geocites. This allowed users to create their own websites.

1997By 1997, the Web had 1 million websites. Blogging begins and AOL messenger lets users chat back and forth. SixDegrees.com lets users create profiles and list friends.

2002In 2002, a social network called Friendster grew to 3 million users in 3 months. Also, Aol had 34 million members.

0204In 2004, Facebook was started for students at Harvard. MySpace also came into the social networking scene. Digg was founded as a social news website where people shared stories found across the internet. Also, podcasting began.

2006In 2006, MySpace was the most popular social networking site in the US. Also, Twitter was launched, which allowed users to send 140 character messages called tweets. Facebook started allowing anyone over the age of 13 to join the site.

2011By this time, social media was accessible from virtually anywhere and it had become a part of our daily lives. There were more than 550 million people on Facebook, 65 million tweets sent, and 2 billion videos viewed every day on youtube. A concern in privacy was raised due to the public sharing of so much personal information.

2012By 2012, more and more people were using smartphones and tablets to access social networks. At this time, the top 10 social networks were Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, WordPress, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, Myspace and Wiki. Advertisers look to social “likes” to enhance brandvisibility.

2013- presentNow, more and more people are using social media. It is more often to be seen using social media than not. By 2013, there are 1.2 billion Facebook users, 200 million active twitter users, 50 billion apps downloaded from the Apple App Store, Instagram had 100 million users and stored 4 billion pictures. Pinterest had 48.7 million users and WordPress had 74 million blogs. Social media is and continues to be a great way for people to communicate.

http://www2.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html