“Humanity’s deepest desire for knowledge is justification enough for our continuing quest. And our goal is nothing less than a complete description of the universe we live in.”
― Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time
December 1969 – ARPANET, a network package system, connects the University of Utah and the University of California – this is the beginning of the internet as we know it
1989 – Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web – he is 34 years old
2002 – Friendster launches, giving users a platform to swap messages. It sparks the era of social networking
May 2003 – LinkedIn is launched, aiming to improve professional networking
July 2003 – MySpace is launched – hundreds of teens receive friend requests from some guy called Tom and begin to upload moody playlists and take dramatic photos from above
February 2004 – Facebook is launched by Harvard university students, Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, originally only for use by fellow Harvard students
January 2005 – Michael and Xochi Birch found Bebo – the name stands for ‘Blog Early, Blog Often’. Teens who missed the MySpace bandwagon sign up in droves, and spend hours rearranging their ‘Top Friends’ lists
March 2006 – Twitter is created by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass; it is officially launched in July that year. People begin to think in 140 character snippets
September 2006 – Anyone aged 13 and up can register for Facebook – Facebook begins to ascend the throne of social networking
2009 – Facebook introduces the iconic ‘Like’ button, buffering the increasingly competitive nature of social media
March 2010 – Pinterest launches as an invitation-only image inspiration service – by March 2011, thousands of women attempt to recreate pinned DIY projects with disastrous results every day
October 2010 – Instagram, an app dedicated to sharing photos, is launched by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Eating a meal will never be the same again
June 2011 – Google+ is launched, as the search engine giant looks for a slice of social networking pie
September 2011 – Snapchat, an app that allows users to send photos to friends for a few seconds only, is released. It is, unsurprisingly, often used to send NSFW images
April 2012 – Facebook acquires Instagram, cornering the market on pictures of people’s shoes/food/pets
June 2012 – Vine launches, allowing users to snap and share short videos, issuing in the phenomenon of ‘Vine Star’
October 2012 – Twitter snaps up Vine, as the 6 second video app suits the micro-blogging site’s short and sweet vibe perfectly
November 2013 – Everyone’s least/most favourite pop rapscallion, Justin Bieber, partly funds the creation of Shots, a social network dedicated entirely to selfies
February 2014 – Facebook acquires messaging app WhatsApp, tightening its hold on the world of messaging
March 2014 – Facebook acquires Oculus VR, hinting at a future incorporating augmented reality with social networking
2015 – With the creation of hundreds of new social media platforms, there is no clear winner. What will be the next contender for the social media crown?