Origins and Evolution of Social Media
MySpace and LiveJournal, were designed for people to connect with friends and family. which allowed users to create personal profile pages and share information about themselves, became the first network to reach one million in 2004.2 LiveJournal, a platform where users could share journal-like entries with either public or private networks, reached over 2.5 million active accounts in 2005.3
Social media use grew rapidly in the 2000s and early 2010s as Facebook andbecame popular. Like MySpace, Facebook users create profiles to share information about themselves, while other users leave comments. Initially used for socializing among college-age users, social media became popular with younger and older users.
In 2006, X’s launch included its feed feature, where posts from accounts that a user followed were aggregated onto a single page.4 Facebook launched its own News Feed feature.5 The news feed became a standard feature for many social media platforms. More users began posting links to external sites, where news stories, current events, and product pages could be shared with personal updates. Users could interact with each other’s content, including liking, sharing, and commenting on posts.
During this time, social media platforms began adding business-specific profile pages and the ability to purchase targeted ads that other users would see, making them more business-friendly and increasing revenue for the platforms.6
Social media users began spending more time scrolling through feeds and consuming daily news and commentary on current events. By 2025, just over half (53%) of adults in the U.S. said they get their news from social media “sometimes” or “often.” Only 27% of U.S. adults say they “never” get the news from social media.7 Younger consumers are more likely to get their news from social media than older generations.8
