In the 1980s, we had the handwritten letter. By the '90s, we often used e-mail because it was easier and more immediate. This decade, our communications have gotten increasingly short, often circulated one sentence at a time on Facebook, Twitter or via text message.
Through social networking, we have learned about friends' breakups, their children's illnesses or parents' deaths. We've gotten an inside glimpse of our children's lives and a better sense of the day-to-day lives of close friends who live far away and co-workers who sit next to us.
We've found long-lost friends and made a couple of new ones, but we also have never felt more distracted.
Here's a look at the milestones in social networking in the past decade:
2002: Friendster launches and becomes a social networking force until MySpace and the more buttoned-up LinkedIn hit the scene in 2003 and slowly gain more traction.
2004: Facebook begins to become a staple of communication for college students. The service opens up to high school students in 2005 and corporate networks in 2006 and eventually becomes a worldwide phenomenon.
2005: YouTube, an online video hosting site, launches.
2006: Twitter, a "microblogging site" that allows 140-character posts, begins and, by decade's end, becomes one of the fastest-growing social networking sites.
Sources: D.M. Boyd & N.B. Ellison, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Here's a look at the milestones in social networking in the past decade:
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
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