In 1960, the PLATO system launched at the University of Illinois, introducing the world to the first true social media features decades before the internet became a household name. This early computing platform offered innovations like Notes, a message-forum application, and Talkomatic, which is widely considered the first online chat room. By 1973, Community Memory appeared as a precursor to the electronic bulletin board system, allowing users to post messages on a public terminal. The Computer Bulletin Board System in Chicago followed on the 16th of February 1978, and soon major US cities hosted multiple BBSes running on TRS-80, Apple II, and Commodore 64 computers. These text-based systems laid the groundwork for the interactive platforms we use today, expanding to include images and video in the 21st century. The evolution from these early systems to the modern web was driven by the integration of HTML hypertext software by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991, which created the World Wide Web and led to an explosion of blogs, list servers, and email services.
The Birth of Networked Identity
SixDegrees, launched in 1997, is often regarded as the first social media site because it was the first online service designed for people to connect using their actual names instead of anonymously. It boasted features like profiles, friends lists, and school affiliations, making it the very first social networking site. The platform's name was inspired by the six degrees of separation concept, which suggests that every person on the planet is just six connections away from everyone else. While instant messaging and chat clients existed at the time, SixDegrees was unique in its focus on real identities. In the early 2000s, social media platforms gained widespread popularity with BlackPlanet in 1999 preceding Friendster and Myspace, followed by Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Research from 2015 reported that globally, users spent 22% of their online time on social networks, likely fueled by the availability of smartphones. As of 2023, as many as 4.76 billion people used social media, representing 59% of the global population.
The Algorithmic Amplifier
Algorithms that track user engagement to prioritize what is shown tend to favor content that spurs negative emotions like anger and outrage. This mechanism has been criticized for worsening political polarization and undermining democracy, with journalist Maria Ressa deeming social media toxic sludge for increasing distrust among members of society. A 2018 study reported that fake news spread almost 70% faster than truthful news on X, and social media bots on social media increase the reach of both true and false content. In 2019, Facebook gave its new emoji reactions five times the weight in its algorithms as its like button, which data scientists at the company in 2019 confirmed had disproportionately boosted toxicity, misinformation and low-quality news. Overall, most online misinformation originates from a small minority of superspreaders, but social media amplifies their reach and influence. This has led to a situation where platforms like X, Instagram, and TikTok have been accused of deliberate misconduct, with lawsuits filed by the Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota and Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin on the 9th of April 2024.
The business model of most social media platforms is based on selling slots to advertisers, providing access to data about each user to deliver ads that are individually relevant to them. This strongly incentivizes platforms to arrange their content so that users view as much content as possible, increasing the number of ads that they see. Platforms such as X add paid user subscriptions in part to reduce their dependence on advertising revenues. In 2013, the United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority began advising celebrities to make it clear whether they had been paid to recommend a product or service by using the hashtag #spon or #ad when endorsing. The US Federal Trade Commission issued similar guidelines. Social media marketing can help promote a product or service and establish connections with customers, but it also creates a situation where businesses do not fully control their social media presence. Instead, they make their case by participating in the conversation, which can be complicated by the fact that consumer content is widely visible and not controlled by the company.
The Mental Health Crisis
A 2017 study reported on a link between sleep disturbance and the use of social media, concluding that blue light from computer/phone displays, and the frequency rather than the duration of time spent, predicted disturbed sleep. A 2016 study reported that teenage girls manipulate their self-presentation on social media to appear beautiful as viewed by their peers, and when this does not go well, self-confidence and self-satisfaction can decline. A 2017 study of almost 6,000 adolescent students reported that those who self-reported addiction-like symptoms of social media use were more likely to report low self-esteem and high levels of depressive symptoms. In 2023, a study of Australian youth reported that 57% had seen disturbingly violent content, while nearly half had regular exposure to sexual images. The median number of minutes of social media use per day was 61, and females were more likely to experience high levels of sleep disturbance. Many teenagers suffer from sleep deprivation from long hours at night on their phones, and this left them tired and unfocused in school.
The Global Regulatory Response
In November 2024, the Australian federal government passed the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, banning people under the age of 16 from using most social media platforms, which would come into effect in December 2025. The stated penalty for breach of the new laws on the part of social media platforms was a financial penalty of AU$49.5 million. The ban would apply to many major social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, but would exempt platforms deemed to meet educational or health needs of people under 16, including YouTube and Google Classroom. In the European Union, the Digital Services Act entered into force on the 17th of February 2024, and the Digital Markets Act in March 2024. Violators could face a complete ban in Europe or fines of up to 6% of global sales. In 2024, the US Congress passed a law directing TikTok's parent company ByteDance to divest the service or see the service banned from operating in the US, and the ban was upheld as constitutional.
The Weaponization of Connection
Militant groups use social media as an organizing and recruiting tool, with Islamic State using social media to influence public opinion where it operates and gain the attention of sympathizers. In 2014, #AllEyesonISIS went viral on Arabic X, and platforms like Telegram, Parler, and Gab were used during the January 6 United States Capitol attack to coordinate attacks. Members shared tips on how to avoid law enforcement and their plans on carrying out their objectives, with some users calling for killing law enforcement officers and politicians. In 2011, social media was influential in the Arab Spring, though debate persists about the extent to which social media facilitated this. Activists have used social media to report the abuse of human rights in Bahrain, and the government stripped citizenship from over 1,000 activists as punishment. The use of effective social media marketing techniques includes not only celebrities, corporations, and governments, but also extremist groups, as detailed in Like War: The Weaponization of Social Media by P.W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking.
The Future of Digital Society
In 2019, X CEO Jack Dorsey advocated an open and decentralized standard for social media, joining Bluesky to bring it to reality. Open source protocols such as ActivityPub have been adopted by platforms such as Mastodon, GNU social, Diaspora, and Friendica, operating as a loose federation of mostly volunteer-operated servers, called the Fediverse. However, in 2019, Mastodon blocked Gab from connecting to it, claiming that it spread violent, right-wing extremism. In June 2024, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for social media platforms to contain a warning about the impact they have on the mental health of young people. A 2024 opinion piece by Megan Moreno and Jenny Radesky, professors of pediatrics, wrote about the need for nuanced policy, regarding access which is contingent upon parental consent as harmful. The future of social media remains uncertain, with ongoing debates about regulation, privacy, and the balance between free speech and safety.