Research Paper

Jason Martell

Sister Steadman

Writing 150

15 March 2012

Thesis:

            Despite there being several concerns when unsafely using social networks, the convenience, simplicity and fun of social networks outweigh the risks if used in a secure way.  The history of social networks show the future of them is only getting bigger and better!

The History and Future of Social Networks

            Facebook was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, a student at the University of Harvard.  The initial goal of, and idea behind creating it was to connect the students on campus.  By fast-forwarding seven years into the future, to the spring of 2011, we can see that Facebook now boasts some amazing numbers.  Ed. Dedria Bryfonski states the following in her article “Introduction to The Global Impact of Social Media: Current Controversies”:

“By the spring of 2011, it had six hundred million users. If its users made up a nation, it would be the third largest in the world.”

The third largest nation in the world!  Bryfonski also adds that, even though Facebook was founded as a US college site, more than 70% of users now are outside of the US.   However, in order to take a glimpse into the future of social networks, first we need to look at the past, and see how far these social networks have come.

The very first form of social networking is still a way we all connect with one-another today. You guessed it, it’s e-mail.  With the launch of the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1991, millions of people were able to connect using chat rooms and games over the web.  Bryfonski states that by the year 2000, the WWW had 23.2 million subscribers.

In 2002, the first website dedicated as a social network was launched.  This website is called Friendster.    According to Bryfonski, Friendster racked up a remarkable 3 million members in just 3 short months!  While an amazing idea for a website, Friendster wasn’t executed very well, and has since lost its rapid growth. Bryfonski reports that by June 2010, Friendster had 90 million members.   Friendster is important, however, because it created the path for many other social networking sites to be created and enter the spotlight.

In 2003 the next major social network took its position in the spotlight.  This competitor of Friendster was much more innovative and attracted artists, musicians, actors and all people everywhere.  According to Bryfonski, the site’s “ability to connect with others and to create a distinctive web page,” made it especially popular.  As you may have guessed, we all know this social network as MySpace.  However, as creative and ground-breaking MySpace was, it too had several concerns that have led to its downfall.  MySpace is renowned for its safety concerns, and has since declined in number of users.  Bryfonski reports that as of March 2011, MySpace had 260 million users.

This brings us to February 2004, when a certain sophomore in college decided to launch his own social networking website.  Today we know this sophomore as Mark Zuckerberg, and we all have heard of his famous creation:  Facebook.  Zuckerberg soon thereafter opened up Facebook to multiple other universities, followed by high schools soon after that.  By 2006 Facebook was available to everyone that had an e-mail address.  While discussing the creation of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg had this to say about connecting Harvard students:

“Six thousand people to share some information about themselves and stay connected with their friends and family. And what we basically just found since then is that that application is something that almost everyone wants to use.

Everyone has an identity that they want to express and friends and family that they wanna stay connected with.”

While other social networks have reached peak in number of users, and then started their decline, Facebook continues to hold strong, and, according to Bryfonski, had reached 600 million users by the spring of 2011.  Facebook’s user-friendliness, ease of connecting, simplicity and fun keep it thriving online even today.

Although it is arguable that Facebook is the king of social networking today, it would be foolish not to say there aren’t competitors.  In 2006, a more information-sharing based social network was started.  This social network is known for allowing users to send short messages (or tweets) instantaneously, helping people follow their loved ones, friends, and favorite celebrities.  If that didn’t give it away, the name of this social network is Twitter.  Bryfonski reports that by spring 2011, Twitter had racked up more than 200 million users, and that number continues to grow rapidly.

From Friendster to Facebook, social networks have come a long way.  From the 3 million people in 3 months that Friendster boasted, to over 600 million users on Facebook today, it is staggering how fast these websites are able to grow.  This leads me to thinking, what will social networks in the future do to stand out?  How will people be able to even more easily stay in close contact with their friends, family and relatives, while still being able to follow their favorite actors, musicians, artists, athletes and celebrities?  Social networks have come so far that the future of them seems limitless.