6 Things We Miss About The Original Facebook

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Those of us in our late 20s remember the birth of Facebook like it was yesterday. The kids and teenagers who “grew up” with the newer incarnations of Facebook never got to witness the site in its glory days. There’s no doubt Facebook is considered the granddaddy of social media, as it set the stage for all the apps that have since followed. Simultaneously, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Facebook has changed over time, and there’s a whole lot we miss. So, let’s rewind the clock and talk about the good ole days. Here are six things we miss about the old-school Facebook:

1. You needed that sweet .edu address

When Facebook first launched, its main appeal was exclusivity. You could only sign up with a college email address, and not every college had it. It wasn’t until my sophomore year at Bard College I was even able to get a Facebook account, though my friends at NYU had been registered since their first day of orientation. There was a certain cool feeling that went with having a Facebook account. It was like being a part of a club, one to which you had to be invited. The other perk of this? Your Mom couldn’t “like” every single one of your pictures or post embarrassing things on your wall. Oh, excuse me — timeline. Which brings me to… 

2. To the window, to the wall!

Before the timeline, there was the glorious wall, and the transition to the timeline was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it makes for easy deep-digging, but on the other hand, all those embarrassing photos you’d rather not think about were suddenly way easier for others to access. Before you made the full transition to the timeline, you had to do some serious purging. The wall was a lot simpler. There was also that amazing wall-to-wall feature, where you could basically read your friends’ conversations to one another. This also came in handy during your stalker-in-training years. 

3. “The” Facebook

We can never forget that part in “The Social Network” when Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) coolly walks away from the restaurant table after telling Mark Zuckerberg to lose the “the” in front of his website’s title. Truth be told, we kind of miss the “the.” It added an official feeling to the website; it wasn’t just Facebook, it was THE Facebook. 

4. (Your name) is….

Remember when status updates were prompted by that little word, coaxing you to write whatever you were feeling or doing at the time? Now, the status button is accompanied by that open-ended question, “What’s on your mind?” Well, we don’t really care what’s on a lot of our Facebook friends’ minds. Especially when it involves angry political rants. 

5. Pokes

Okay, you can still poke people, but it’s not as fun as it was when Facebook first launched. Today, the “poke” option is just a little weird. Back when you first got your Facebook account, though, you loved poking your BFFs, just to be annoying. And, if you were ever “poked” by your crush… well… that was just the perfect cap to any day. 

6. The novelty of the “relationship status”

Nowadays, it seems being “Facebook official” creates more drama than it’s worth. However, when Facebook was born, the ability to click on a classmate’s profile and find out if he was in a relationship — or even looking for one — was completely awesome. This was part of what Zuckerberg wanted when he founded The Facebook; he knew college kids were curious as to their peers’ relationship statuses, but were often too afraid to ask. Facebook did that job for us. Of course, the downside to the old-school version was the broken heart icon that would appear on everyone’s news feed when you and your significant other broke up. But, it was the price you willingly paid for a “Facebook official” relationship.