3 ms·

I was just chatting about the “golden years” of Facebook with a friend today. I think it was about 10 years ago. Maybe we’re over-glamorizing the past, but at

by nlh 4y ago

I was just chatting about the “golden years” of Facebook with a friend today. I think it was about 10 years ago. Maybe we’re over-glamorizing the past, but at least the way we recall it: Around 2012-2014, the newsfeed mostly was just updates from your friends with some ads sprinkled in. Everyone was on Facebook, so if you were hosting a social event, you could just invite everyone on Facebook and they’d hear about it. Birthdays were great because everyone would wish you happy birthday and you would do the same for them. There was a location-based search feature, where you could travel to basically any city and search your friends list to see who was there. I felt closer to a lot of old friends from growing up than almost any other time, because suddenly everyone was on Facebook and it was super easy to catch up with someone I hadn’t talked to in years. That’s all vanished these days, sadly. Social events are organized by email again (which is fine but less convenient). I’ve lost touch with old high school friends again because nobody uses Facebook anymore except for a few die hard holdouts. I really remember thinking “Man, Facebook is just so dominant, I don’t see how they could blow it.” Turns out, if you keep feeding the growth monster in search of more and more “engagement” (enragement?), eventually the growth monster destroys you.

woweoe 4y ago
I would say that the golden years ended by 2012 (depending on age of course). Facebook was essentially a way to connect to people outside your inner circle, and before 2012 it was a way for younger people to connect to other younger people outside school/college/university. It was similar to what Instagram does now except for the new friends feature. Facebook works in a social environment where everyone knows your personal details and you maintain a casual-formal image (school, university...) but is useless in most other contexts. Instagram provides flexibility in who you can add, but is bad as a tool for socializing.
irrational 4y ago
> Everyone was on Facebook, so if you were hosting a social event, you could just invite everyone on Facebook and they’d hear about it. My wife and I have never used Facebook. We would miss invites to things all the time since everyone assumes that everyone was on there and forgot that we were not. We used it as a litmus test to figure out who our true friends were. Fortunately now all of our friends have abandoned social media in favor of group texts.

by nlh 4y ago

woweoe 4y ago

I would say that the golden years ended by 2012 (depending on age of course). Facebook was essentially a way to connect to people outside your inner circle, and before 2012 it was a way for younger people to connect to other younger people outside school/college/university. It was similar to what Instagram does now except for the new friends feature. Facebook works in a social environment where everyone knows your personal details and you maintain a casual-formal image (school, university...) but is useless in most other contexts. Instagram provides flexibility in who you can add, but is bad as a tool for socializing.

irrational 4y ago

> Everyone was on Facebook, so if you were hosting a social event, you could just invite everyone on Facebook and they’d hear about it. My wife and I have never used Facebook. We would miss invites to things all the time since everyone assumes that everyone was on there and forgot that we were not. We used it as a litmus test to figure out who our true friends were. Fortunately now all of our friends have abandoned social media in favor of group texts.