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Early forms of communication -

Although social media could be said to date back to the first transmitted and received Morse code messages, the first social media platform as we know and understand it today was ARPANET.

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Universities share data -

The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET, was established in 1969 to allow scientists from four different American universities and colleges to share data, programs, and more.

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The National Science Foundation -

In 1987, ARPANET was launched to the public by the National Science Foundation.

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Faster and between more parties -

The National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) was established in 1985, which helped make the sharing of data faster and between more parties.

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Other institutions emerge -

Through the '80s and '90s, institutions such as CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy allowed internet users to communicate using emails, bulletin board messages, and real-time online chatting.

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SixDegrees (1997) -

From here, some platforms began to emerge, like SixDegrees, which ran from 1997 to 2001. SixDegrees allowed users to create a profile and save their contacts.

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Blogging -

Simultaneously during this time in 1999, LiveJournal was enabling the growth in popularity of blogs.

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LinkedIn (2002) -

Although LinkedIn had over 670 million users in 2020, it was actually launched way back in 2002 and has been growing ever since.

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LinkedIn users -

LinkedIn was designed as a networking site for career-minded professionals. Today its users are mostly job seekers and employers.

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Friendster (2003) -

Friendster attracted millions of users from 2003, who could register by email and get involved in a very standard form of online networking. 

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MySpace (2003) -

MySpace was launched in 2003 and was the most visited page on the web by 2006. Its attraction was that, in a general sense, users had more creative freedom. An example would be that they could share music on their profile.

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Facebook (2004) -

In 2004, Facebook was founded, and would eventually dominate the market.

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MySpace eclipsed by Facebook -

In 2011, Specific Media Group and Justin Timberlake spent US$35 million to buy MySpace, which proved to be a bad investment.

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About 1.7 billion users -

Today, Facebook has about 1.7 billion users. If every account were a separate person, Facebook’s members would make up almost 22% of the world’s population!

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Where is it all going? -

Social media is branching out and is expected to continue to branch out in its forms to meet customer wants and needs.

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The market goes in every direction -

We begin to see social media's market diverge in many different directions, meeting many different consumer needs. Like in any market place, entrepreneurs attempt to understand their needs and wants and offer products and services accordingly.

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Google+ : a swing and a miss -

Google attempted to enter the market in 2012 with Google+. But its existence was rocky and it ultimately came to an end in 2018 with little success, and following the information of 500,000 people being compromised.

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Reddit (2005) -

Reddit was established back in 2005. It had over 430 million users by 2020.

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Reddit users -

It works as a news/story aggregation and commentary network where users can up-vote and down-vote posts. The up and down voting system of comments and posts is where the value lies for users.

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Twitter (2006) -

Twitter was founded in 2006 as a micro-blogging social media network. It had 330 million monthly active users in 2020.

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Twitter users -

Twitter’s primary demographic is mainly 35 to 65 year olds, and the ratio of men to women is two to one.

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Pinterest (2010) -

Pinterest was founded in 2010. It had 416 million active users in 2020. It is based on images but in a different way than Instagram. It works as a virtual pinboard for users, who can share, comment, publish, and create collections of images.

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Pinterest users -

Some 35% of its users are between 30 and 49 years of age, and 34% are between 18 and 29.

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Instagram (2010) -

Instagram was also founded in 2010. It had one billion active users in 2020.

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Instagram users -

Its unique value propositions allow its users to post temporary stories in video and image form, and use image filters.

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Snapchat (2011) -

Snapchat was founded in 2011. It had an estimated 313 million users in 2020.

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Snapchat users -

Its concept is to allow users to create “stories” based on what they’re doing in their lives. Almost half of the users on Snapchat are between the ages of 15 and 25.

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TikTok (2016) -

TikTok is the most recent social media platform to gain widespread use. Its story began in 2016. It has changed names three times since being founded, and attracted over 1 billion users worldwide as of 2023.

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TikTok users -

Some 41% of TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24. Another 56% of TikTok users are male, and 44% are female.

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TikTok ban -

There have long been debates about banning the Chinese-owned app in the US over concerns about American data security. Efforts to incite a nationwide crackdown on the app have failed in Congress, but on May 18, 2023, Montana became the first state to ban TikTok. Republican Governor Greg Gianforte signed in the legislation in May 2023, stating that the bill progresses their "shared priority to protect Montanans from Chinese Communist Party surveillance." TikTok released a statement saying that the new law "infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by unlawfully banning TikTok." They vowed to "continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana." A group of TikTok users from Montana filed a lawsuit to overturn the bill within hours of Gianforte's signature. It's expected that TikTok will also take legal action. 

The ban is scheduled to come into effect from January 1, 2024. It will make it unlawful for Google and Apple app stores to offer the app within the state, although individuals using the app will not be penalized.

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Forgotten platforms -

Some honorable mentions are DailyBooth, FriendFeed, Bebo, Yik Yak, and Vine, to name a few. There's also a number of websites and apps that can carry out functions that social media does but aren't strictly their function, such as YouTube.

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TRUTH Social -

Donald Trump announced the creation of his new company, the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), in October of 2021. TMTG launched their first app in February: TRUTH Social. In his statement, Trump said “I created TRUTH Social and TMTG to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech. We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced." He stated that their mission was to be “a rival to the liberal media consortium and fight back against the Big Tech companies.” 

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Elon Musk's Twitter takeover -

On October 28, 2022, Elon Musk closed the deal to buy Twitter for a seemingly excessive bid of US$44 billion--a sale which he tried to back out of weeks after announcing in April. After months of legal proceedings, he eventually followed through and took the helm. The controversial billionaire promised to bring a new era of freedom of speech to the platform, lifting bans on those who previously had their accounts blocked for spreading misinformation or hate speech. Things have since gone horribly wrong, with mass job cuts, increased hate speech, immense trolling with the introduction of paid verification, and Musk himself being voted out as CEO with an online poll he posted.

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Meta Verified -

In February 2023, Mark Zuckerberg announced the he is rolling out Meta's subscription service which will allow Facebook and Instagram users to pay to get verified. “Meta Verified” will start at US$11.99 a month on the web or US$14.99 a month on iOS, and it comes with perks like extra protection from impersonation accounts and direct access to customer support.

This is an obvious copy of Elon Musk's Twitter move, except Meta will apparently skirt the problems Twitter Blue ran into (fake accounts and impersonators) by making people submit government IDs before handing out a blue checkmark. Also, where Musk said he'll phase out blue checks for everyone and make anyone who wants one pay, Meta will reportedly leave those with already-established verified status. Twitter Blue relaunched in December 2022 after its missteps, but it costs US$11 a month for iOS and Android subscribers in a bid to earn Musk back some of that money he lost, surely. But the trend is marking a new direction for social media which may indeed be paid.

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Twitter becomes X Corp -

Court documents filed on April 4, 2023,  revealed that Twitter no longer exists as a company. Right-wing commentator Laura Loomer sued the platform for banning her account back in 2019, accusing them of violating federal racketeering laws. While the lawsuit is unlikely to go anywhere, it did require Twitter to submit corporate disclosure statements to the court. In its filings, the company provided a notice that “Twitter, Inc. has been merged into X Corp. and no longer exists.” Elon Musk reportedly registered X Holdings Corp back in April 2022, so this appears to be part of some kind of long-term plan for Twitter.

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Record-breaking fine -

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp, was given a record-breaking US$1.3 billion (€1.2 billion) fine by European Union regulators in May 2023 for transferring the personal data of Facebook’s EU users to servers in the US. The fine is the largest ever imposed under Europe’s signature data privacy law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and along with the eye-watering sum, Meta has also been ordered to cease the processing of EU user data in the US within six months, CNN reports.

“Facebook has millions of users in Europe, so the volume of personal data transferred is massive," said Andrea Jelinek, chair of the European Data Protection Board. "The unprecedented fine is a strong signal to organizations that serious infringements have far-reaching consequences,” she added. Meta responded by saying they will be attempting to appeal the ruling.

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Threads, the "Twitter-killer" -

Twitter's huge dive in popularity plunged deeper when Musk made a sudden announcement on July 1 that a “temporary limit” had been applied to the number of posts users can view. Within days, Zuckerberg's Meta announced that they were launching a new app called Threads, a text-based conversation app allowing real-time discussions online. Sound familiar? Threads appears to be the first major competitor to Twitter, offering similar services in a similar format. Threads allows up to 500 characters per post, almost double what Twitter allows. 

According to Zuckerberg, five million users signed up to use the app within the first four hours. Within seven hours, there were 10 million users. He pitched the new app as "friendly" competition to Twitter. Threads is linked to Instagram making it easy for users to start using Threads with the same account. However, users said that once you make a Threads account, you can't delete it without deleting your linked Instagram account too.

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The weigh-in -

While social media is likely to be around for quite some time, there is a significant proportion of negative opinions surrounding it in general due to addiction and fake news, for instance. However, it’s impossible to know its long-term effects socially and psychologically for now, as there are too many factors at play.

Sources: (Buffer)(Maryville University)(Statista)(BBC)

See also: The controversial world of Elon Musk

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