With Facebook turning 10, we have a unique opportunity to examine what has happened to our lives over the last decade whether we use the social media site or not.
The NYTimes is even collecting 150 words or less about your experience for a future post.
It is without question that Facebook has changed our daily lives. From the way we make announcements to the way we get our news. I will admit, that since the dawn of Twitter, I find Facebook’s newsfeed too cluttered. I would rather not see long dissertation status updates on a daily basis, and prefer the quick status updates and real important news that is much more accessible to me on Twitter. Twitter’s 140 character limit is ALWAYS such a relief.
This begs the question, How much is too much?
After 10 years, Facebook has made me a much more private person. Which begs the questions, Why private? Wouldn’t you want to share every waking moment of your life for everyone to see???
Well… No.
But I wasn’t always this way.
I began Facebook like many in the beginning, it was about college, friends and events on campus. It was all very private as shown in the image below. We owned our information. PERIOD. Then we graduated from college, so grad school or jobs and travel adventures were being posted, and then the weddings….. At one point, the babies started, but it wasn’t like now… Now it’s babies and bellies.
Don’t get me wrong. I love seeing the baby photos and the belly photos of my friends and people I went to high school and college with. It keeps me connected and maybe gives me a false sense of friendship, which is pretty much what Facebook is about… A False sense of Friendship and intimacy with a great deal of acquaintances.
The repercussions of all of this sharing is a feeling of comparison that many might have. It may be no different than fitting in or attempting to fit-in as we might have done in high school.
If Jane is getting married, why haven’t I? Or Have you seen Shauna’s new house!?
Need I go on… It’s contagious. Facebook stalking is a part of our everyday lives, whether we do it consciously or not.
For the longest time, my husband refused to go on Facebook and is now on with no image or personal information. We are not listed as married and I respect his wishes not to blast our private life all over the web. My eldest brother is actually the same – no personal photos or information. They are both in IT and so from both of their points of view, something like Facebook is pretty dangerous.
Over the course of 10 years, a lot has changed, and thanks to Facebook, your decade or less is summed up in a lovely video tribute. I love the idea, but for someone who loves details as much as I do. So much is left out.
No one wants to re-live photos of exes, so it seems common place to complete obliterate that relationship from your pages if it finished before a marriage or civil union. So while the videos are a lovely tribute for Facebook they are not necessarily the best representation of everyone’s 10 years or less.
But it’s the thought that counts.
What do you remember about “the facebook” when it first began?
