Editing 2000s (section)

==== Communications ====
[[File:Texting.jpg|thumb|The popularity of mobile phones and [[text messaging]] surged in the 2000s in the Western world.]]
* The popularity of mobile phones and [[text messaging]] surged in the 2000s in the Western world. The advent of text messaging made possible new forms of interaction that were not possible before, leading to positive implications such as having the ability to receive information on the move. Nevertheless, it also led to negative social implications such as "[[cyberbullying]]" and the rise of traffic collisions caused by drivers who were distracted as they were [[texting while driving]].
* [[Mobile internet]], first launched in Japan with the [[i-mode]] in 1999, became increasingly popular with people in developed countries throughout the decade, thanks to improving cell phone capabilities and advances in mobile telecommunications technology, such as [[GPRS]] and [[3G]].
* E-mail continued to be popular throughout the decade. It began to replace "[[snail mail]]" (also known, more neutrally, as '''paper mail''', '''postal mail''', '''land mail''', or simply '''mail''' or '''post''') as the primary way of sending letters and other messages to people in faraway locations, though it has been available since 1971.
* [[Social networking site]]s arose as a new way for people to stay in touch no matter where they are, as long as they have an [[internet connection]]. The earliest social networking sites were [[Friendster]], [[Myspace]], [[Facebook]], and [[Twitter]] in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006, respectively. Myspace was the most popular social networking website until June 2009 when Facebook overtook Myspace in the number of American users.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/former-myspace-ceo-reveals-what-facebook-did-right-to-dominate-social-media/ |title=Former MySpace CEO explains why MySpace lost out to Facebook so badly |first=Marc |last=Schenker |publisher=Digital Trends |date=May 12, 2015 |access-date=December 21, 2017 |archive-date=December 22, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222051826/https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/former-myspace-ceo-reveals-what-facebook-did-right-to-dominate-social-media/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Smartphone]]s, which combine mobile phones with the features of [[personal digital assistant]]s and [[portable media player]]s, first emerged in the 1990s but did not become popular until the late 2000s. Smartphones are rich in features and often have high resolution [[touchscreen]]s and [[web browser]]s. The first modern smartphone was the [[iPhone (1st generation)|iPhone 2G]], one of the earliest smartphones to not include a physical keyboard, solely utilizing a touch screen and a home button, which would later become standard across the industry. It was released in June 2007 in the [[United States]], and in November 2007 in a number of territories in Western Europe.
* Due to the major success of broadband Internet connections, [[Voice over IP|VoIP]] starts to gain popularity as a replacement for [[Plain old telephone service|traditional telephone]] lines. VoIP was largely popularized by [[Skype]].<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/28/microsoft-skype/</ref>