Social networking seems like a very new phenomenon and, certainly for the younger generation, it’s hard to imagine a world without Facebook and Twitter.

But social isn’t (and never was) just these two platforms – in fact, it actually predates both of them by over thirty years. Yep. The history of social media is, essentially, the history of the internet, and you will find its roots in email, usenet, the world wide web, blogs and (gasp) AOL.

Fast-forward to 2003, and MySpace and Friendster were *still* all the rage. True, it wasn’t until Facebook (2004) and Twitter (2006) came along that social media really began to change the world, but its foundations can be discovered a lot further back in the timeline. And in ten years from now, unthinkable as it might seem today, it’s inevitable that both of these platforms will have been superseded by something else, too. Such is the nature of the beast.

This infographic from Copyblogger takes a look at the history of social media.