Facebook recently turned 10 years old, which by the way is pretty crazy! It got me thinking about my Facebook life, however. Whether it be the way I use Facebook, the things I post, or just the total amount of time spent on the site per day, a lot has changed in the 9+ years since I joined the site.
You know you’ve been a long-time (a.k.a. OG) Facebook user if all of the following apply:
(1) The site was called ‘The Facebook’ when you registered and actually had the following website URL: http://www.thefacebook.com
(2) You had to provide your university email address to register, assuming your university was on the list of eligible universities
(3) There was no such thing as a status update
(4) ‘Poking’ was a thing
(5) There was no liking or commenting on people’s’ wall posts
As part of this 10 year celebration, Facebook is offering the opportunity for users to view their very own Facebook movie.
The move is actually a nice touch. There’s also that split second before each post / picture where my heart stopped in anticipation of just what would be shown next. (Thankfully nothing too embarrassing and a minimal amount of swear words.)
It also serves as a rabbit hole for exploring your past life according to Facebook, one status update or wall post at a time. These updates help paint the picture of our lives over the years. Whether the times were good or bad, Facebook was there for us to share our cryptic, passive-aggressive humble brags to the world.
Still, there were some gems over the years:
2004
October 13th – joined Facebook. Legendary.
2006
October 4th
Among the greatest photos of all time. I won’t go into too much detail explaining who those individuals are or how this picture came to be, but I will say that it was spawned of several games of beer pong, an oversized pen, and Young Dro’s “Shoulda Lean”. The seven comments and only one ‘Like’ are a travesty.
December 20th
Talking in the third person and mentally preparing to dominate Accounting finals. Oh, the good old days.
Seriously, life was full of simple pleasures.
2007
February 24th
Admiration. Respect.
September 19th
Brotherly love and bonding through the genius lyrics of Soulja Boy.
2008
February 5th
Celebrating the early victories of our Commander-in-Chief. As in Super Tuesday primary election victories.
September 27th
Wisdom passed along through the sounds and movements of David Byrne and the Talking Heads. If you have a solid hour and a half to kill, you should watch this:
You are most welcome.
2009
February 2nd
That awkward moment where you pretend that 23 is an old age to be.
May 8th
That more awkward moment where you think it’s cool to quote Asher Roth lyrics.
December 30th
Big life events. Like driving across the country to start a career.
2010
November 26th
The starting of new traditions.
December 31st
Taking time to appreciate important landmarks, like a combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
2011
August 19th
Moved into a new apartment and started riding a new bus. Only took a couple of months on the new bus route to realize it was a bit more ‘active’ than my previous one.
September 8th
I mean…I love my bus.
2012
December 8th
Setting foot in a foreign land and not knowing a soul.
2013
July 4th
Finding heaven on Earth.
August 26th
Bucketlisting.
November 27th
Making big life decisions.
2014
That pretty much brings us up to the present. Sifting through your Facebook timeline can be a pretty crazy, yet entertaining experience. Something about scrolling through the various posts brings back memories that fill me with joy and nostalgia, which makes me pretty happy overall.
The one common theme I noticed throughout my timeline is all of the friends I’ve made and relationships I’ve formed along the way, some of which remain, some of which are new, and some of which — unfortunately — have faded over time. This is probably the worst part about reviewing my Facebook timeline. But I guess it’s also part of life.
At the very least, we can all still use Facebook to reconnect.
1:00 PM on a Wednesday 