Who says college students can’t make a difference? The Internet has created an excellent outlet for students who want to create, speak out, and take action. These college students made history, influencing the growth and use of social media as we know it.
- Mark Zuckerberg: Perhaps the most obvious student on this list is Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook. While a student at Harvard, he cofounded the wildly popular social networking site from his dorm room, and it’s used by missions today.
- Gennette Cordova: Gennette Cordova made history as the first Twitter user to get a Congressman fired. The 21-year-old Washington State student was the recipient of a lewd photo from Congressman Anthony Weiner-the incident was dubbed "Weinergate" and the Congressman resigned.
- Reddit Founders: Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, fresh out of the University of Virginia, founded reddit.com. The site has grown to become one of the biggest social news sites, and has been acquired by Conde Nast Publications.
- Andrew Meyer: You may not recognize Andrew Meyer’s name, but you know what he said. The guy who said, "Don’t tase me bro," made history on YouTube with nearly 6 million views. Additionally, tase was listed as one of the words of the year for 2006, and "Don’t tase me bro" was the most memorable quote of 2007 in the Yale Book of Quotations.
- Shawn Fanning: While a student at Boston’s Northeastern University, Shawn Fanning completed the code for Napster, and launched the system in early 1999. Although the service ultimately ended, it launched the era of P2P and social sharing online.
- Taylor Behl: You may not remember her name, but the case of Taylor Behl’s was an Internet cause celebre in 2006. Police used social networking sites including MySpace and Facebook to track down the case, and her killer’s social networking sites were ultimately used to find her body.
- Baylor Blackfaces: A group of students hosted a party with an "E-Dawg" theme, which for them, meant using blackface. Photos from the event ended up on Facebook.com, and became a racism incident fueled by social media.
- Matt Mullenweg: As a freshman at the University of Houston, 19-year-old Matt Mullenweg began developing WordPress. WordPress went on to become an incredibly popular blogging site and platform that is widely used today.
- The students of Egypt: College students have a rich history of bringing about social change in response to student activism. But the entire world was watching as Egyptian students turned to Twitter in the overthrowing of former President Mumbarak.
- Deidre LaCarte: Deidre LaCarte is the Canadian art student behind the infamous Geocities Hamster Dance page. This was created before the time of widespread social media, but the site was spread by email and even early blogs.
- James Hong and Jim Young: While Young was a graduate student at Berkeley, he and James Hong created the popular ratings site HotorNot, which allowed users to create a profile, rate others, and even meet for a date.
- Justin Zimmerman: A student at the University of Alabama, Justin Zimmerman was the target of a racial slur that, without the help of social media, may have otherwise gone unnoticed by the public. But rather than shuttering the incident, Zimmerman took to Facebook, and the news spread to Twitter. News media organizations found out about the incident, and Zimmerman was contacted by several high ranking administrators.
Taken From Online Colleges
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