On July 15, 2006, Twitter, a microblogging system with 140 characters, was launched.
In June 2007, Apple launched its first iPhone in the USA, leading to the smartphone boom. This marked a new era of internet access, connectivity, and social expression without needing a PC or a traditional blog.
In August 2007, Chris Messina introduced the hashtag # to categorize conversations on Twitter.
By January 2009, Dana Lewis founded the USA and Canada chapter for health and social media using #hcsm.
In August 2009, Andrew Spong and Silja Chouquet established the European chapter #hcsmeu.
The Spanish chapter, #hcsmeuES, was founded in April 2010, with other European countries and LATAM following suit.
Enthusiastic social media and health pioneers participated in weekly chats, sharing opinions and connecting. Although primitive compared to today, those 140 characters fostered authenticity during the user attraction phase.
Around 2017, things began to change, leading to the extraction phase starting in 2018. Social media corporations altered the rules to maximize profits, leveraging user engagement and generated content.
Today, X remains a key space for the health community and digital health discussions.
However, as Chris Dixon points out, centralized networks trap us within their walled gardens, limiting our ownership of identity and community.
Future decentralization could bring benefits like self-sovereignty, data ownership, privacy, disintermediation, and token-based incentives.
Long live X—what will the next 18 years bring?
Ángel González
By Ángel González
Ideagoras
