Social media is one of an integral part of the modern society. It is one of the fundamental tools that its implementation is in almost every sector ranging from personal use to even governments. Social networks are growing dramatically and are being used majorly to share videos, updates, images, meetings and creating networks 1 . This innovation is receiving a significant boost in the fact that almost all the problems that human beings encounter have a social way of solving it. Currently, we know of favorite sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, and Instagram may look like one thing but its start can trace back to those mechanisms and tools that enable people to communicate through internet and computers, however much they might have seemed primitive to the modern era 2 . With technology, ten years is a long period and what probably was there ten years ago might be an outdated thing. Social media has gone through some milestones which can be classified into three eras: The primitive era of social media, the medieval era, and the golden era.
Milestones
a) Usenets
The Usenets falls under the primitive era of social media. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis in 1979 were the people who came up with this site. It allowed users to post news to newsgroups. Usenets do not have a central server. The Usenets has led to the growth of newsreader clients, and thus a forerunner to RSS feed readers that presently, is being implemented in following blogs and those sites that offer news 3 . Moreover, Google and Yahoo, for example, have put into use conventions that implement the original Usenet systems technology in setting up groups, for instance, the Google groups.
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b) Bulletin Board Systems
In the late 1970’s, BBS came into existence, and it was the first site that implemented the login option to interact. Their hosting, initially, was being done with the help of personal computers. It was a single user system which allowed only one person at a time to have access 4 . The user was supposed to dial in using the host’s modem which means it was slow. BBS acted as a platform, as well, illegal practices took place ranging from malware and unauthorized access. Moreover, it led to the distribution of adult material through the platform.
c) Online services
In the primitive era, we had CompuServe in 1980 and Prodigy in 1984. The first chat came into existence with the breakthrough of CompuServe. On the other hand, prodigy was an improvement of CompuServe. However, it aimed to provide online services at a lower cost since CompuServe charges were too high thus limited a lot of people from using it 5 . In 1985, Genie took the form of using text-based services. Genie aimed to utilize the free time-sharing mainframes during the off-peak hours. It included services such as shopping, games and round-table forums 6 . This technology was implemented up to 1999.
d) IRC, ICQ, and Instant Messaging
This stage marks a considerable part of the medieval era. The IRC (Internet Relay Chat) came in place in 1988 and marked the beginning of file sharing, link sharing and keeping in touch. A significant percentage of people were not able to make use of this platform because it was a development that was meant for UNIX operating system 7 . After that came the ICQ which brought into place the multi-user messaging, games with more than one players and the rise of emoticons and abbreviations.
e) Early Social Networks
Still, in the medieval era, social networks began to rise. Dating sites formed a better part, and it enabled users to create profiles and to be able to reach to other users. Forums, also became more advanced, not like the BBSs and had more interactive user-interface allowing those users without technical skills to use them comfortably. The social networks, in this era, could not let a user have a friends list, for instance, the Six Degrees which was once popular with approximately one million users at any particular time 8 . In 1977 to 2001, AsianAvenue, Migente, and BlackPlanet took center stage, and all had common essential features which include allowing the user create professional and personal profiles. In 1999, Live Journal changed the perspective of social media by introducing dynamic content in blogs, forums, and groups. It led to enhancement of interaction. It maximized the weaknesses of its predecessors and enabled users to follow back each other and view live updates.
f) Advances in Social Media
Live Journal marked the end of a medieval era. Friendster marked the beginning of the golden age which allowed people to identify their friends and then extend to friends-of-friends. Its focus was to reach more people than what one would do in life in a faster way. In 2003, HI5 was developed which was an improvement of what Friendster could offer regarding the privacy of the profiles as it allowed users to set degrees on who could view their profiles. On that same year, the creation of LinkedIn was successful, and its focus was on business. In 2006, Myspace took over which was a completely different approach since it allowed users to change and customize their profiles’ look. It also allowed users to upload music from various artists and even use videos on other sections of their profiles. Facebook then became a breakthrough in 2006 9 . It started as a school networking site, but by 2008, it became the social network and users were able to upload pictures, videos and even update their statuses. Currently, Facebook is still very popular, and other sites have joined this golden era, and they include Instagram, Flickr, Revver, and YouTube among others 10 .
Conclusion
Social media is something that the world cannot live without, and their complexities are increasing day by day. The popularity of social media is as a result of the increasing popularity of smartphones, tablets and personal computers. The advancements in the technologies are growing, and therefore social media evolves as well leading to a lot of significant activities shifting to social media, for instance, marketing.
Bibliography
Jayasena, Sajithra K, and Rajindra Patil. "Social Media – History and Components." IOSR Journal of Business and Management 7, no. 1 (2013): 69-74. doi: 10.9790/487x-0716974.
Kwak, Doyeon, and Wonjoon Kim. "Understanding the Process of Social Network Evolution: Online-Offline Integrated Analysis of Social Tie Formation." PLOS ONE 12, no. 5 (2017): e0177729. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0177729.
McIntyre, Karen E. "The Evolution of Social Media from 1969 to 2013: A Change In Competition and A Trend toward Complementary, Niche Sites". The Journal of Social Media in Society 3, no. 2 (2014): 1-21.
