The Evolution of Social Networking in the Twenty-First Century

While the late twentieth century saw small steps towards larger-scale social-networks, it is the twenty-first century that has witnessed an unprecedented explosion in the social sphere of the internet, embodied in the likes of Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and other widely websites often used by Parkway North students.

For a better perspective on how quickly social-networks are growing in size, consider the growth of the best well-known networks:

Facebook launched on March 1, 2004, less than a decade ago, and now has over one-billion users.  That’s a seventh of the world’s population.

Twitter, launched only seven years ago in 2006, currently has over two-hundred million users.  

Lastly, video-sharing website YouTube, a favorite among all internet-goers, receives over one-billion unique page-views each month, and millions of subscriptions per day.

The timeline (below) illustrates the development and inception of the most popular social-networks over the past decade.  Some of these networks, such as MySpace, are no longer considered widely popular.

Click to enlarge.

Written and designed by Steven Chaffin, Jr. — Online and Entertainment Editor