Auzzie IT – Amusing Stories – Social Media in 1980

Social Media in 1980

You may be under the impression that Social Media is a 21^st century thing with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and all the others.  But back in the 80s we had our own version of Social Media:  Bulletin boards.

Those of us in the Geek World, we loved bulletin boards.  These were the Google of the 80’s.  We were able to look up solutions, ideas, post papers and new drivers etc. We would follow people who we knew created goof content.  This sounds similar, right?

So how was this social? Well, via these e-boards we would play games, share ideas, work on projects; almost everything you do today, we did then. However, the biggest difference of Social Media in the 80’s was we had to arrange physical meetings where we could share and collaboarate with each other on our bulletin boards. This often involved wine, cigarettes and coffee (at least 2 of these where almost considered mandatory for any geek of the 80s) but this was the beginning of social collaboration of content.

This getting together of like-minded people is what brought IT to what it is today.  Without this sharing, improving, competing and in general, working together; Social Media would not be what it is today. It is used to connect people with content, businesses, distant relative, friends and even begin relationships. It is used a marketing strategy for business as people want to feel connected. So, in the 80s geeks met up to share their content with oe another and now we can share it to the world with a click of a button. What is your earliest memory of Social media?