4. Prehistoric social media (1980-2000) First public dial-up Bulletin Board System by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, began February 16, 1978 in Chicago. Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, started in 1980. [1] Google Groups is a service from Google Inc. that supports discussion groups , including many Usenet newsgroups, based on common interests. Users can find discussion groups related interests, either through a web interface or by email. Google Groups also includes an archive of Usenet newsgroup postings dating back to 1981 [2] Early days