How has internet culture evolved from early forums to today's social media?

The answer

Internet culture has evolved through distinct eras. The early web (1991-2003) featured personal homepages, Usenet groups, and forums where niche communities formed - GeoCities hosted 38 million pages before closing in 2009. The Web 2.0 era (2004-2012) brought user-generated content via MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, democratizing publishing. The attention economy era (2013-2020) saw algorithmic feeds replace chronological ones, creating filter bubbles and viral content cycles. The current creator economy era features 200 million people globally identifying as content creators, with the industry worth $250 billion in 2024. Each era has produced distinct cultural artifacts: early web had ASCII art and chain emails; Web 2.0 created rage comics and vlogs; the current era produces TikTok trends and parasocial relationships. Internet language has also evolved, creating terms like ghosting, doomscrolling, and touch grass that have entered mainstream dictionaries.