Dorks Cited: A Brief History of Social Media

A Brief History of Social Media

Think you know all there is to know about social media? I did! Until I found this article from Social Media Rockstar which breaks down the past 30 years of the digital age and social media revolution, including “phone phreaking,” Prodigy (my fam’s first foray into digital life), AOL (100 hours FREE!), IMing, file sharing and beyond.

One interesting part that kinda puts Twitter into perspective. I’ve always equated Twitter to AIM away messages, but didn’t realize how far back the connection went:

“People have been addicted to “tweeting” their real-time status updates (using hash tags (#) and at-signs (@)) for over 20 years. IRC, or Internet Relay Chat… was notably used to break news on the Soviet coup attempt during the media blackout and keep tabs on the first Gulf War. Many people stayed logged into IRC constantly… using it to share links, files and keep in touch with their global network – the same way Twitter is used today.”

Kinda makes the “simpler times” seem a lot less simple, eh?

Posted: September 19th, 2009 under Digital.
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