This document provides a history of social media from 1960 to the present. It traces the evolution from early Bulletin Board Systems and Compuserve in the 1960s-1970s, to AOL and chat rooms in the 1980s-1990s. Major sites launched in the 1990s-2000s included Classmates.com, Friendster, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook in 2004. The rise of mobile apps in the 2010s with Snapchat and Instagram changed how people share photos and videos. Now social media has become central to how people communicate and interact online.

1. HISTORY OF SOCIAL MEDIA
BY KATIE CHUZIE

2. 1960-1970: IT STARTED WITH THE BBS.
• The Bulletin Board System was
essentially an online meeting place
accessed over telephone lines via a
modem for users to download files
or games and post messages to
each other.
• In the 60’s, early 70’s, my parents
were either just being born or very
young therefore I wasn’t even a
thought. But little did people
know, a couple decades later, my
generation would be the one’s to
change it all.

3. 1970-1980: THEN THERE WAS
COMPUSERVE
• Users could now access
news and events and talk
to thousands of people on
various discussion
forums.
• My parents were getting
ready to graduate high
school and are probably
as lost about social media
now as they were then.

4. 1980-1990: THE INTERNET BEFORE THE
INTERNET
• Along with instant messaging and email in its later days, AOL
(America Online) also allowed users to create member profiles.
• When I was 8-10 years old, AOL was still in full swing and I would
use the instant messaging to talk to my friend who would go to
Mississippi for the summer. We would always battle over who’s
font and color was cooler. Little did I know, that was just the
beginning.

5. 1990-2000: A FEW NOTABLES
• Sites such as Classmates.com and
AsianAvenue.com arose in the late
90’s to provide more specialized
services. Users could track down old
friends from high school and people
of the same race could network
easier.
• During this time, I was busy learning
to walk instead of learning the ins
and outs of social media.

6. 2002: THE LAUNCH OF FRIENDSTER
• Friendster introduced a new
“Circle of Friends” concept and
revoked the idea of users finding
others with common bonds.
• In 2002, I was in kindergarten
where common bonds consisted
of chocolate milk and naptime.

7. 2003: A MORE SERIOUS APPROACH
• LinkedIn arose in 2003 to allow
professionals to network for
business purposes.
• While LinkedIn was evolving, I was
learning a key skill for succeeding
in the professional world: how to
read. And 13 years later, who
knew how much I would be
depending on this site as I enter
the professional world.

8. 2003: MYSPACE
• Less serious than LinkedIn, MySpace
served as a funky social media site for
young adults having a lot to do with
music and music videos.
• While I was not using MySpace in 2003,
it quickly became the cool thing to have
once I reached early middle school in
the later 2000’s. I loved the
backgrounds and music you could set
for your profile and this was where I
posted my first selfie.

9. 2004: A KING IS BORN
• In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg pulled his
pals together and created Facebook
which still remains the king of social
media today.
• While I was busy enhancing my math
and reading skills in 2nd grade, I
remember signing up for Facebook 6
years later and the rest is history.

10. 2007: FACEBOOK PLATFORM
• In 2007, the Facebook Platform is
released allowing outside developers
to create applications that work within
Facebook itself.
• In 2007, I was entering the world of
middle school and had no idea that
this idea would eventually turn out to
be very relevant in my life.

11. 2007: GOOGLE HAS A SAY
• Google+ launched in 2007 standing out
with its Hangouts feature allowing
users to enter live video chats.
• In 2007, I was also experiencing my
first cell phone and the closest I got to
Google+’s video chat was sending
audio messages instead of text
messages.

12. 2010: THE RISE OF MOBILE
• Mobile-based applications such as
Snapchat and Instagram surface
solely for the purpose of video and
photo sharing.
• 2010 was my freshman year of high
school and everyone was interested
in the latest relationship statuses on
Facebook.

13. 2014: THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL
NETWORKING
• In March 2014, Facebook acquired
Oculus VR, playing a part in
introducing virtual and augmented
reality which may be the future of
overall computing.
• I began college in 2014 and now,
two years later, own a Samsung
Gear VR and hopefully one day will
impact the world of social media as
a Software Engineer.

14. NOW: THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
• What started as a service before the Internet had even taken full
effect is now what our worlds revolve around. How we send,
receive, process, create is all done online and quite often
through the use of social media.