Social Media Day Date in the current year: June 30, 2024

Social media are interactive digital channels that allow users to create and share various content through online interactions in virtual communities. The history of social media can be traced back to the 1960s, when the University of Illinois developed and built PLATO, a computer-assisted instruction system that had some features associated with modern social media such as instant messaging.

The predecessors of modern social media began to emerge following the introduction of operating systems with a graphical user interface. They included bulletin board systems, instant messaging platforms (AOL, Yahoo, MSN), and early blogging and social networking services.

What can be called the era of social media began in the early 2000s with the emergence and popularization of Friendster, LinkedIn, Myspace (then stylized as MySpace), and Facebook. Other social media launched in the 2000s and early 2010s that are still thriving include Flickr, Reddit, Twitter, VK (Vkontakte), Tumblr, Sina Weibo, Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat.

Social media are hard to classify, but most social media and marketing experts agree that they can be divided into 13 types: blogs, business networks, collaborative projects, enterprise social networks, forums, microblogs, photo sharing services, review platforms, social bookmarking services, social network games, social network sites, video sharing services, and virtual worlds.

Some social media belong to more than one type. For example, Instagram started out as a purely photo sharing app, but has added several video features since first incorporating video sharing in 2013. Telegram is primarily an instant messaging service, but a lot of people use it as a blog and news platform due to its channels feature.

The use of social media has both positive and negative impacts. On the one hand, they are an effective communication tool, provide an easy way to keep family and friends updated about our lives, and help us feel like a part of a community. On the other hand, social media are major time suckers that sometimes exacerbate mental health problems and expose people to bullying. That is why social media, like most other things, are good in moderation.

Social Media Day was launched in 2010 by Mashable, an international digital media platform that covers entertainment, culture, science and technology. After hosting Social Media Day events for almost a decade, Mashable ended its association with the observance in 2018. Since then, Social Media Day has taken a life of its own, and anyone can host events on the occasion, provided they do not use the Mashable name or logo to promote their events.

There are a lot of ways to celebrate Social Media Day. You can raise awareness of the holiday by posting about it on your favorite social media platforms (do not forget the hashtag #SocialMediaDay!), use social media to reconnect with people you haven’t spoken to for a long time, or discover new social media websites and apps. Social Media Day is also a great occasion to learn more about social media safety or reevaluate your relationship with social media.