20 years now, I can't say it seems like yesterday but It doesn't feel like 20 years has passed, does it? Today we know that Facebook has changed our lives but years ago we did not know if the idea of social networks was going to take hold and for many it was a simple entertainment that was not going to amount to anything, how wrong they were.
On the 4th of this month of February, it will be 20 years since the first profile was created within this social network. Let's celebrate it with this Time travel through the last 20 years of the most famous social network in the world.
Were there social networks before Facebook?
Despite what some think, Mark Zuckerberg's social network did not invent social networks on the Internet. While Facebook started on February 4, 2004, there were others before. This milestone specifically is attributed to LunarStorm, a virtual community mainly used by Swedish teenagers and created in 2000.
Although if we look back we can remember other social networks such as MySpace, Messenger or the game Habbo Hotel, which many consider to be one of the first social networks and one of the most innovative due to its gamification and real-time interaction.
And if we want to see a social network that started before Facebook and is at full capacity today, that is it. LinkedIn, which was born back in 2003.
Many others have come and gone, special mention to our dear Tuenti social network that was the most used in Spain until 2009.
All of them have added their grain of sand to personal relationships through the Internet, progressively changing the behavior of the people who use them. Let's see then, If Facebook has changed our lives in the last 20 years.
How Facebook has changed our lives?
We reconnect with friends from the past
Social networks help us regain contact with our loved ones with whom we no longer connect. This is an inherent functionality of social networks that is wonderful.
Reunions of old friends through social networks fill us with nostalgia and good memories. It's always nice to see an old friend and say hello, I'm sure you can resume a beautiful lost friendship through Facebook.
We start taking care of farms and aquariums
If we talk about entertainment we have to remember those farm games where we had to constantly connect to clean stables, orchards and other play areas to advance and expand our farm, fish tank or dragon paradise like in Dragon City.
We received messages from other users, from our contact list, who had stopped by our virtual house to clean or asked us to help them build an extension to their land. You could also meet random people who played those games and perhaps establish a good and long friendship, even if it was only for the game.
Never have so many people congratulated us on our birthday.
There was a time when during your birthday You were more interested in knowing who had congratulated you than in the gifts they were going to give you that day.. We were delighted to receive interactions, something very new and undiscovered for many at that time.
You probably had more than one argument because you forgot a friend's birthday, it was something relatively important for the time.
Reunions with old school friends
The Facebook channels were used to create groups of classmates or even ex-colleagues (surely there were channels with work groups but at that time I was a teenager and my groups were student) with which to regain contact.
The reunions of former students, something that at that time was more typical of an American movie than our society, began to be seen more frequently.
For reunions, Events were created within the platform and channel where confirmation of attendance at the meeting was requested., and then you could see who had backed out at the last moment. What a wonderful period.
A new way to flirt
Who hasn't taken out their weapons of conquest online. At the time we all wanted to have the best profile online possible and Facebook let us put our best photos to meet people... and link.
Nowadays, perhaps it is even more common to flirt on social networks than in person, but at the time we had to get used to a new way of relating via chat.
Advertisements are no longer only on television
Is that an advertisement? I remember saying that phrase the first time I saw an ad on Facebook. To this day I think how innocent he was. But is normal, The world of advertising has advanced a lot and we have become accustomed to it.
Groups emerge and with it a source of information
Groups within Facebook have changed our lives since they were a great discovery for many. At the time this possibility was offered to users, groups of all kinds began to be created. Humorous channels like «Things your grandmother does» spread rapidly through the social network.
In addition, the groups had the peculiarity that they could be changed to the liking of the owner of said group. This made Some of these groups will be used for purchases and misleading advertising. when they acquired many visits. It ended up losing a lot of effectiveness in a few years.
The media are not the only ones who give news
The news spread on Facebook. Any status update or new post in your contact group appeared on the front page to get your attention.
This made the sports fan tell you how Rafa Nadal had won the Roland Garros or how Pau Gasol had reached the conference finals in the NBA without depending on professional media.
You know more facets of your friends
Facebook feeds our most gossipy version when reviewing the profiles of our friends or family. And seeing the photos that were uploaded on this platform we understood much more about this person.
And not only that, you can also see your friends' friends and follow that famous saying to the letter: Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are.
Public debates open
And, as you know, the internet wouldn't be the internet without debates. Arguments and fights broke out in any comment box, group or Facebook channel..
Nowadays we have social networks like which is very difficult to contemplate in "real life."
In short, social networks and specifically Facebook has changed our entire environment, offering us new ways of communicating and relating.. The impact of this social network on our lives is incalculable, both for the good and the bad.
I was lucky enough to meet wonderful people through Facebook with whom I have relationships today (and I have also resumed communication with old friends), something for which I am tremendously grateful. And for you How has life changed for you in the last 20 years with Facebook?