When thinking of social media, the sites that first come to mind are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to name a few. Before all of those sites existed, social media evolved in a different form than what we call social media today.
“Social media is a type of information system where information is sent through electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content” (Merriam-Webster). Social Media is simply a way that people interact freely, while sharing information about their lives.
In 1979, UseNets came about and they were considered the first form of social media. UseNets gave users the ability to post different news articles to newsgroups where individuals
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This social site was created in 1997 and allowed people to create profiles, while sharing who their friends were. Just over a year later users were able to look at others friend’s lists. Above all, Six Degrees increased its popularity when it was the first site to allow its users to find individuals they went to high school and or college with (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). In 2002, Friendster was created and surpassed Six Degrees because it considered the “circle of friends”, according to the Digital trends staff (Digital Trends Staff, 2014). The site aimed to group people according to things they had in common versus a group of random individuals who are within the same area.
In 2003, majority of social media users migrated and began using Myspace. Although there are distinct differences a lot of people thought Myspace was a clone of Friendster (Curtis, 2013). Even though MySpace is no longer popular, it gave birth to new ideas such as the ability to choose people who they wanted on their top friends, different background layouts for their profile, and the ability to add a song every time someone clicked on an individual’s profile. With the emergence of new types and sites of social media, MySpace use is now focused on showcasing different bands and musicians promoting their