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© 2019 Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics Dental Press J Orthod. 2019 Jan-Feb;24(1):14-5 14 The way in which the Internet has changed human communication is unprecedented. Its origins date from the beginning of the 1960’s, with J. C. R. Licklider, at the MIT, and his description of the Galactic Network concept. In parallel, the technology for digital data transfer was being developed independently by different researchers and, in September 1969, the first host computer was connected [to a network] at the University of California (UCLA), creating the ARPANET. Later on, in the 1990’s, at the CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) in Geneva, Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web, together with a browser, that was offered to the public in 1991. And, in this way, the whole world started to be digitally connected. The Internet is essentially a mechanism for exchanging digital information, and as such, it enables the collaboration and interaction among individuals, through their computers, independently of geographic location. More recently, the interaction concept became more evident in the term coined by Tim O’Reilly in 2004: the Web 2.0. This term describes a second generation of communities that include websites with content created by its users, in what can be considered as an interactive digital community. As tools in this new category of interactions we can include social media websites and their apps. The Cambridge Dictionary defines social media as an interactive technology mediated by computer, which allows the creation and spreading of information, ideas, professional interests and other expressions through communities or virtual networks. But the influence of social media seems to have a wider range than this. Nowadays, even the choices for presidential elections may be influenced by this means of communications. According to the Washington Post, 35% of voters between 18 and 29 years of age state that social media are the most useful source of information for the presidential campaign. In contrast, votFlavia Artese The Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics in the