The First Social Networking Decade: Coming Of Age and Wasting Our Time

How could the world manage without Facebook? Of course, it managed just fine without it until recently.

It’s one of several social networking and related Internet phenomena that first became available in the 2000s.

In fact, most of the world’s current time-wasters and network expanders originated in the years between 2000 and 2010. It was a busy decade for Internet development, but here are some highlights by year.

In 2001...

Social networking wasn’t on the world’s agenda yet, but the world’s first encyclopedia edited by anyone and everyone took it’s place on the web: Wikipedia. It put content creation into the hands of the people -- and gave bored geeks something to work on.

The iPod was released in 2001, too, and so was Grand Theft Auto 3, so there were plenty of ways to spend free time in this pre-Facebook era.

In 2003...

LinkedIn and MySpace started the social networking revolution. People put their humility aside and started using company computers to look for connections that would lead them to other jobs with LinkedIn. Musicians spread the word about their gigs on MySpace, a site soon adopted by other users.

While both of these services continue into the next decade, they’re already almost relics of the past -- although they both struggle to remain relevant.

In 2004...

Facebook changed the way the world communicates -- for better and for worse. While people still settled into easy chairs to watch their favorite TV shows when they were broadcast -- like the brand new series Lost -- people were starting to realize TV wasn’t the only entertainment around.

Soon, Facebook games began replacing television as the waste-of-time choice.

In 2005...

Facebook and TV merged in this year -- sort of. With the launch of YouTube, home movies went online. Wasting time became a user-generated art form on this site as soon as people learned about it.

If Facebook and YouTube left anyone wondering about their place on this planet, Google Earth launched in 2005 also -- to help those so lost they needed a planetary view to reorient themselves.

In 2006...

Twitter made social networking even more pervasive and less time consuming by limiting the interaction to 140 characters.

People who felt cheated out of typing exercise once interactions evolved to only a few characters were able to make up for it by exercising to a video game since the Wii launched this year, too.

In 2007...

The iPhone made it easier than ever to take social networking and other time-wasters on the road with you -- in an easy-to-use format that was accessible to more than just geeks.

While people stilled tuned in television for shows like the new Big Bang Theory, the iPhone allowed them to keep backup entertainment as close as their pockets and purses.

In 2010...

The iPad was released, making everything bigger than on an iPhone -- and making netbook makers wonder why they bothered.

What’s next? Time will tell. Be certain that the next big thing will show up in tweets within seconds of its announcement -- and users can “like” it on Facebook before the day is over.

It’s a new, socially connected world. Word travels fast, but since people can communicate more easily than ever, they can stay right where they are -- at desks, on computers and in uncomfortable desk chairs.

Social networking has changed just about everyone’s life. Is it for the better?