World’s First Social Media
During the transition to the modern Internet in the 1990s, people started to realize the need for online social media platforms. Though there were many other online platforms, the first recognizable social network service site is six degrees.
It was launched about 24 years ago in 1997 by MacroView (later renamed to SixDegrees). Six Degrees had around 100 employees, and the site had around 3.5 million fully registered members.
This social media was named after the six degrees of separation theory which was originally set out in a 1929 short story by Frigyes Karinthy. This theory is also known as the six handshakes rule.
It states that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else by no more than six degrees of separation. In simple words, there are not more than six ‘a friend of a friend’ between two individual persons!
A user of SixDegrees.com could set up a profile page, create lists of connections, and send messages within networks. Users could send messages and post bulletin board items to others in first, second, and third-degree connections as well.
YouthStream Media Networks bought Six Degrees in December 1999 for $125 million. Apparently, it turned into a huge loss. It got shuttered in 2000. Though it later made a modest comeback and still subsists today.
Don’t you think Six Degrees has eased the way of recent social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter?
References:
The History of Social Media: 29+ Key Moments
The Complete History of Social Media
A Chronological History of Social Media
The Small-World Phenomenon: Six Degrees of Separation Explained
