History of the term "social media"

The phrase "social media" in its current incarnation is a rather recent concept, as it is used to describe technologies and networks that simply did not exist 10 years ago. It is also arguably one of the most abused buzzwords around. Occurrences of the literal phrase "social media" go back to the late 19th century, but always in a different context compared to how it is used today. Originally, the term was used more in the literal sense - talking about the various mediums society could be projected on to or conveyed through. The first usage of the phrase that fit more closely with the current definition was found in a 1962 New York Times article, talking about the Pope's response to new forms of mass communication, in which "the press, motion pictures, radio and television" are referred to as "social media." This is an interesting change, as here the phrase has more of a relation to communication, even if it is a unidirectional broadcast rather than interaction. in 1994 "social media" appeared for the first time in what we would consider the modern definition. In a technical article discussing the Internet and various new ways of communicating it afforded, "social media" were used to describe USENET and IRC, two of the earliest forms of networked bidirectional, world-wide multiuser communication. After this, the phrase was still used in the original sense until the mid 21st century, when sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and others really came to embrace it and define the term how we know it today. Officially, "social media" today refers to social interaction and the exchange of information within global internet networks.