IM-based: AIM+MSN+etc… -> IRC -> Google Talk -> SMS -> (nothing for many years) -> Slack (for work)

Web-Based: forums (esp. GMC) -> Digg -> reddit (mainly) + HN (sometimes) -> kbin -> lemmy

Not all of these are social media sites, but this list is my social internet path

Bolt dot com & SciFi channel chatrooms

AIM & Yahoo chatrooms

ICQ & IRC

Soulseek (I count it because I used to hang in the chatrooms quite a bit)

Eyeball chat, then followed friends to Camfrog chat, before both were enshittified

MySpace

Facebook and dabbling in Instagram

Reddit, left after Apollo went offline

Mastadon and dabbled in Snapchat

Threads

BlueSky, still here

Lemmy then Piefed, still here

AIM IRC MSN chat rooms TOTSE Livejournal MySpace (barely) Facebook (barely) 4chan Reddit Twitter Mastodon Lemmy

• CompuServe Chat
• Dialup Bulletin Board
• USENET
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Lemmy

Facebook was a horrible mistake. I jumped off when I realized I didn’t want to associate with the people there.

Jumped off Reddit when my app was blocked.

Edit: mid-50’s English speaker (well, American English, if that still counts), also remembered that there was a dialup bulletin board back in the day.

Usenet then Slashdot and a forum on a website that no longer exists.

Once I got Internet at home, there were a few online chatrooms that were web based, but were basically IRC. It looks like one of those sites still exists, but if it’s the same one I used (and Yahoo used as a proxy) it’s not at the URL I used it at. Also either I’ve forgotten my details or I’ve been deleted (or it’s a knock-off).

Then Digg, Reddit, Twitter and now the Fediverse.

Oh and throw Discord in there too somewhere towards the latter end.

Dishonourable mentions: MyYearbook and Tagged.com. The former was a bit like old-school MySpace, but it became a soulless dating site called MeetMe with none of the fun Flash games and chat. Tagged was basically a (surprisingly smut-free) user avatar trading site. Attractive people’s pictures (usually women) could end up worth ridiculous sums of fake money. Like vigintillions of dollars kinds of ridiculous.

Now it seems that both are part of the same company, at least based on how the websites for MeetMe and Tagged look. Very glad I’m out of there.

/.
Reddit
Lemmy

Usenet (and still there), mailing lists (hooray for any that use schleuder), a bit of IRC (though I was never one for quick fire & forget statements, today I’m good with Signal/Molly/Gurk and XMPP; Matrix never appealed to me), lot’s of Forums (mostly related to my favourite games at the times), some twitter (though I was never really comfortable with the hustle to gain more visibility through large follower numbers), switched over to identi.ca (and eventually many different ActivityPub servers, currently one Akkoma and one Lemmy; not interested in PixelFed, though it helps I dislike the dev’s attitude; PeerTube could be interesting as a consumer, but the UX still feels atrocious; I tend to leave my name/handle behind when switching, I’ll inform some people important to me, but I am quite happy not having to maintain friendships and a reputation, gotta do that in meatspace, and I find it taxing even there). Lurked 4chan a couple years, but was never comfortable engaging, too much “fake” being a horrible person. Was relatively active on reddit, but ever since the redesign I felt it was too cumbersome to use (yes, old., I know, but who wants to rely on a legacy version being available?), plus their corporate decisions were pissing me off more and more (Yeah, I’m a pretty stout software freedom person, down to using libreboot & canoeboot, though I no longer wish to associate myself with the FSF, given their tone-deaf handling of the whole RMS situation), so, yeah, eventually lemmy. I’m more quiet than I used to be, getting older, I suppose, but I was also never that into anything “social” in the first place (I’m an Aspie, who’d have thunk?), so I mostly lurk and only post when I feel I can actually contribute something meaningful.

ICQ †
StudiVZ †
Facebook †
4chan †
WhatsApp †
Reddit †
Feddit
I did post a video to Instagram once that got several million views, but that was on my employer’s account.
I’m an elder millennial German

yahoo chat
myspace
elfpack
4chan
facebook
Spiceworks
9gag
reddit
Lemmy

Usenet Irc (many years offline) 9gag Imgur Lemmy

Neopets
GameFAQs
Various forums
IRC
Digg
Reddit
Twitch
Fediverse (fgc.network, kbin.social, fedia.io)

I started out with forums primarily. And Youtube.

I then tried out Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, but didn’t like any of them. My school for a time also mandated Netlog iirc.

Eventually I moved to Reddit and joined Discord.

When the blackout protests came around, I went looking for alternatives to Reddit I could try out while the subreddits I cared about were dark, which is when I saw people suggesting /kbin. Which I liked a lot more than Lemmy based on first impressions, so I joined it.

When /kbin died, I switched to Mbin. I’m still active on Reddit itself because I originally really only joined as a temporary measure. I liked it enough to stick around, but Reddit has not become that unusable yet that I would leave it for good.

Never used Instagram, Tiktok, 4chan, etc.

I’m Swiss, German-speaking, born 1996.

newsgroups and irc then nothing then linkedin and facebook (only for connectins and stuff never really interacted much) then slashdot then myspace (really just to listen to music) then reddit (was doing mmos for a good bit and lots of chatting on them and came to reddit for them) then here. oh and youtube but I mean to me thats like watching something on tubi.

Does talking to randoms on Kazaa count? Otherwise various forums, uboot, Facebook (shudder), Reddit, Lemmy.

If it interests you to see an in depth what a zoomer’s experience of social media might be:

Other things I’ve dabbled in: pixelfed, twitch.

Never used: Telegram, Snapchat, BeReal, TikTok, PornHub or similar.