How did people interact before smartphones were omnipresent? How did we document and share the everyday moments of our lives? Do you remember what it was like conduct business before email, collaborative documents, and online calendars? How did we find ways to be social before social media?

The Oxford English Dictionary online defines social media as “websites and applications which enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.” We once used telegrams, snapshots, postcards, letters, and scrapbooks to communicate with each other, organize our daily lives, and preserve memories. Drawn from John J. Burns Library archival collections, this exhibit connects some of our legacy material culture with the apps of today.