Social communication apart from face to face conversation has existed for centuries, from letter writing to the telegraph, and from the telephone to the radio. Early forms of the internet and email came about in the 1960s, and by the late twentieth century, what we now know as social media began being developed and used. It was originally mainly used by individuals, but now it is commonly used by businesses as well. Social Media Day was started by Mashable on June 30, 2010, "as a way to recognise and celebrate social media's impact on global communication." Social media now permeates the globe even more fully than it did when the day was first created. The first social media site, Six Degrees, allowed users to create a profile and add other users as friends; it existed from 1997 to 2001. About the same time, blogging and instant messaging became popular. ICQ was an early instant messaging program, which was soon followed by AOL Instant Messenger. Myspace began in 2003, and for a time was the largest social media website in the world. It set the template for social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. I use FB to keep in touch with friends and family but not much else. There is a massive amount of dangerous nonsense out there.
I quit Facebook about 10 years ago, but you can still reach me on ICQ Edit: well I have an ICQ number from the 90's but I forgot the password
I sincerely think that Twitter and to a lesser degree Facebook are happily sewing the seeds for generations of lazy thinking, opinionated, self gratifying mentally ill berks that have no functional empathy for any actual person.
Social Justice Warrior, those deranged, shrieking manics (usually female) you see at every demo these days.