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Six Degrees
Six Degrees was a short-lived social media platform from 1997-2000. The name is based upon the "six degrees" of separation that we have from other people. Users could send messages and post bulletin board items to people in their first, second, and third degrees, and see their connection to any other user on the site. -
LiveJournal
LiveJournal launched in 1999, and is a unique community publishing platform in which users have their own customizable journal. LiveJournal allows users to find others that share common interests, meet new friends, and express themselves. -
Friendster
Friendster launched in 2002. The platform allowed users to connect with friends, share content, and meet new people through online social circles. Friendster became popular for its ability to connect people from different parts of the world and was the first platform to exhibit modern-day features such as status updates. Friendster faced a decline in the late 2000s due to competitors gaining traction such as MySpace and Facebook. -
MySpace
MySpace was launched in 2003. It allowed users to create customizable profiles, share music, and connect with friends. MySpace played a strong role in online social networking before being overtaken by Facebook in terms of user numbers by the late 2000s. -
LinkedIn
LinkedIn was launched in 2003 by Reid Hoffman. LinkedIn is a valuable resource for job searching and connecting with employers. It is a different style of social media, as it is more professional, but it is still widely used today -
Facebook
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his college roommates in 2004. It quickly grew to reach billions worldwide due to features such as a news feed, photo sharing, and Messenger. Today, it is the largest social media platform in the world. -
YouTube
YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim in 2005. The platform was focused on video content, and allowed users to upload, view, and share videos. It quickly changed the way users consume media by offering a platform for independent creators, vloggers, musicians, and educators. YouTube is still popular today, but is being contested by short-form video platforms like TikTok -
Reddit
Reddit launched in 2005 and became a popular social media platform for news, topic discussion, and voting. Reddit is still popular for exploring specific interests and asking questions for public opinion. -
Twitter
Twitter was founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in 2006. It became a popular platform for sharing short, 140-character messages known as tweets. It became a platform for sharing news and opinions and connecting with others. Today, it has over 330 million monthly active users. -
Pinterest
Pinterest launched in March 2010. It allowed users to create digital bulletin boards to curate their interests. The app became popularized as users could make inspiration boards and gather ideas from the app unlike others. -
Instagram
Instagram launched in 2010. It quickly became popular due to features like filters and its focus on photo-sharing. The platform allowed for multiple types of photo takers, from amateur photographers to professional artists. Instagram has remained popular over the years because of new features such as stories and reels. -
Snapchat
Snapchat was founded by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown in 2011. It was unique because of the disappearing messages and stories. Users enjoyed the fun filters and the casual day-to-day usage of the app. -
TikTok
TikTok launched in It quickly became a popular platform for sharing short-form video content. The app revolutionized content creation and influencer culture, primarily during the Covid-19 lockdown. Today, it has over 1 billion monthly active users. -
Musical.ly and TikTok Merge
TikTok and Musical.ly merged in 2018. TikTok content quickly replaced the standard lip-syncing videos found on Musical.ly but remained consistent with the use of music and short-form content. TikTok retained a lot of the young audience that was on Musical.ly, and many content creators had to adapt to the new popular type of content creation, which caused many of them to fall behind and lose popularity. -
Elon Musk buys Twitter
In 2022, Elon Musk purchased the social media platform Twitter. His takeover of Twitter sparked debates over free speech and content moderation, as the app was shifting in a new direction. The acquisition process was notable due to the negotiations and legal disputes involved in the process. The public was upset by the acquisition, and raised concern about their privacy and government/tech intervention in social media. Musk also outraged users by renaming the app from Twitter to X.