More than a majority of generations growing up not considering social media as an important part of their life to millennials basing their whole activism; say, Black Lives Matter, on social media- we have come a long way in a matter of decades. Activism, businesses, news, running a social media agency or just socializing, all of it has combined on a single platform.
But the question is: when? And what were the root causes that made social media to be an integral part of upcoming generations?
CHRONOLOGICAL TIMELINE
It was in 1971 that the first email was sent. In 198 Internet Relay Chat was born for exchanging text messages. In 1988, Six Degrees came into being which was considered the first social networking site; it had features like profiles, friends list, and school affiliations.
In 2002, Friendster was born and became The early giant of the era. Alongside profiles, Friendster was used as a dating site. It also introduced gaming to be a part of social networking.
Further along, 2003 was the year of LinkedIn. The social media now broke its restrictions and made the business a part of it.
2004, we saw the emergence of Facebook originally as a social network for Harvard pass outs.
2005 was the year of Youtube. The idea of sharing life events through video clips was still a foreign concept aspectual of social media.
In 2006, twitter was born. Twitter was the most unique platform on social media since it had a limit of character in a message.
2009 was the year of ever loved Whatsapp. Whatsapp was new for social media users because it had no ads, no interface, just their chats which was quite handy and easy to use.
REVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA?
When the locals became used to the concept of social media, new and ever different kinds of websites started coming out. Until now social media was restricted in its use and not everyone, if loved it, was bound to it. The era was yet to come where it gets people hooked to itself. The revolution started giving hints when Facebook got launched and started monopolizing the market.
However, in 2009-10 we saw that huge milestone.
Instagram was one of the few apps that gave a tough time to Facebook. The reason was its multiple colorful features and lesser intellectual requirements. In the age of selfies, it became insanely popular in no time. Users could share and create photos. In 2011, Snapchat came on the side with Instagram.
After a good few years of Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook ruling the lead, it came down to a video app that was born in 2017. Tiktok, a Chinese social media app being invested upon a billion dollars for advertising in USA, have become funnily popular from 2019 to the current 2020. More than 10M people are actively using this app.
Conclusion- Is social media actually a current invention?
Over the last 15 years, billions of people around the world have jumped onto the social media bandwagon- but the real question is that When did social media really invent. Was it when the first gigantic computer was invented? Or when people used to send their messages on paper through birds? Or was it when people started using telegraph in late 18th C? We can never say. However the definition of social media is applications and websites that enable users to create and share content or participate in social networking. Only according to which, Social media is the invention of the early 2000s.
The era we live in, safe to say, is the peak of social media usage generations have ever seen. But nobody can tell about future decades. We are social creatures after all and love to ride on platforms that make meeting and talking with others easily.
