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Seven Years of Social Networking

I still remember the day I opened an account on Friendster — it was September 2003 and a friend created an account for me. I wasn’t really into the idea but eventually got the hang of it. Seven years have passed and a lot has changed — yet, the fundamentals of social networking remains the same.

Friendster had about 5 years to its credit; MySpace took over for a couple more, then Facebook is now the reigning king of social networks. It might still be the “in thing” for a couple more years until a better and much fresher social network emerges.

facebook

This one thing I learned thru the years — there’s really no loyalty with a platform, just a loyalty to the concept of social interaction and engagement. Just look at how the MySpace crowd moving to Twitter and significantly influencing the atmosphere (see Twitter vs. Justin Bieber).

But we have to give credit where credit is due. Friendster really introduced us to the idea of social networking. Before that, I can’t remember any other site that allows for a more social connection than Friendster. There was a site called Alumni.net (which I recently discovered was founded by a Filipino) that allows for people to add schoolmates to a directory-style listing (IMO, the site is somewhat a pre-cursor to SNS).

friendster

It doesn’t even end there — there’s Twitter, Gowalla/SquareSpace and Tumblr/Yahoo! Meme — all trying to take away a piece of the pie.

Seven years is such a long time in internet-years. I imagine it will be a totally different scene 5 years from now. We can’t really say what it is or how it will look like but with the emergence of more smartphones (read: cheap Android phones), a better infrastructure (3.5G/4G) and more affordable connectivity, the social networks of the future will hopefully be more participative (more sharers than lurkers) and platform-agnostic (so it doesn’t matter if your account is on FB, Friendster or MySpace since everything will be inter-connected).

(… and no, I don’t think we would go as far as electing our President via FB Fans or Twitter Followers. Otherwise, Vice Ganda could top the list at 1.5 million).

So, I’m curious, what was your very first social network experience and when did you join? Mine was Friendster, September 2003.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

28 Responses

  1. Avatar for rayban glass rayban glass says:

    I want getting over a damaged heart will be so easy as following a number steps..but its no longer…

  2. Avatar for ec ec says:

    before there was a globe forum, 2006
    then i transfered to w5c.org their have there own new style nowadays 2006 redirected to pinoywap.net 2006-2007 before frienster 2007. myspace doesnt hit my taste buds but i created an account way back 2009, then at first facebook doesnt attrack me to resign on friendster until i saw the mafiawar that catch the most of my attention. since then i packedup and move to the new world and now i forgot about my old friendster.

  3. Avatar for krystle pingol krystle pingol says:

    mine was friendster..
    member since November 2003..

  4. Avatar for reevhen reevhen says:

    i join social networks when i was in college only.

    Visit this social network its my favorite placeto hangout http://swom.com/?r=69462

  5. Avatar for RaGe Einzeln RaGe Einzeln says:

    face-pic year 2002 I think
    Yahoo! groups
    faceparty

    friendster on 2003
    hi-5
    never had myspace
    then facebook on 2008

  6. Avatar for anne anne says:

    face-pic 2002, college days

  7. Avatar for Eran Eran says:

    friendster since 2004

  8. Avatar for Uchiha Yueh Uchiha Yueh says:

    Some social networking sites that has been closed or forgotten:

    Friendzy (Closed)
    Berkster (Closed)
    Hipstir (Still active)

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