Many social media platforms that have remained are now thriving, and new ones are appearing sporadically. Instant messaging platforms such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Windows Live Messenger also become increasingly popular. Various notable social media platforms such as Myspace and Facebook are developed and released, and blogging begins to gain popularity. Its name is an acronym for 'Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, coined by Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog. The WELL, established in 1985, is one of the oldest still-operating online communities. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea of Usenet in 1979 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, and it was established in 1980.Īs operating systems with a graphical user interface, such as Windows and Mac OS, begin to emerge and gain popularity, this creates an environment that allows for early social media platforms to thrive and exist.īulletin board systems (BBS) and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) were popular during this time period, and IRC is still widely used today. The PLATO system (developed at the University of Illinois and subsequently commercially marketed by Control Data Corporation) offers early forms of social media with Notes, PLATO's message-forum application TERM-talk, its instant-messaging feature Talkomatic, perhaps the first online chat room News Report, a crowd-sourced online newspaper, and blog and Access Lists, enabling the owner of a notes file or other application to limit access to a certain set of users, for example, only friends, classmates, or co-workers. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.

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