Comm455/History of Journalism

According to  Beth Hayden and Rafal Tomal at copyblogger, There’s nothing new about “social media.”

Hayden and Tomal also state that,”the concept behind Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networking tools isn’t new. These sites just give us new, sexy, and easy-to use ways to do what we’ve always wanted to do online — exchange ideas and information.”

Hayden and Tomal cite the beginning of social media in 1971, when an email was sent by researchers in Switzerland.

But was that really the beginning of social media?

Word of mouth, dating back almost 550 years, was the beginning of social media. The historical timeline below depicts the use of the internet as a social media tool. Not the beginning of the social media phenomena.

The info-graphic below tells the story of a social internet.

The modern day word of mouth.

Where Ray Sears reconnected with his long lost love; and where Carly Fleishmann, an autistic and non-verbal woman, could finally communicate with the world.

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