Stuff You Should Know Sixdegrees.com: A Social Media Origin Story
5 snips
Jul 10, 2025 Explore the origins of social media with SixDegrees.com, the pioneer site that predated giants like Facebook. Discover its challenges in a sparsely connected internet and how the idea of 'Six Degrees of Separation' gained traction. Dive into nostalgic anecdotes from the year 2000, reflecting on the quirks of early online interactions. The conversation touches on significant figures like Kevin Bacon and Eric Roberts, highlighting the interconnectedness of social circles, as well as the rise and eventual decline of early social networking.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
SixDegrees.com Launched Too Early
- SixDegrees.com was the first social media website, launching in 1997 with three and a half million users.
- Its failure was mainly due to launching too early before widespread internet adoption and slow dial-up speeds.
Early Internet Limited Reach
- In 1997, only about 18-36% of U.S. households had internet access, limiting social media adoption.
- By 2002, internet use had flipped to 61%, creating better conditions for later social networks.
Dial-Up Speed Hindered Adoption
- Dial-up internet speed capped at 56 kilobytes per second made loading web pages and images painfully slow.
- This bottleneck severely impacted user experience and engagement with early social media sites.