In 2100, when you look back at these archives and reminisce about those early, bizarre days of the 21st century, perhaps you will be surprised to learn that you were once an avid user and even a frequent enjoyer of “the Facebook.” It was responsible for many funny interactions, perhaps even a few important ones, and indeed, you even used it as an instrument of courting. But mostly, it was a joke to you from the get-go, and like every joke that tickles you just right, you rode it for years before eventually realizing that to most people it was a Serious Endeavour, a so-called “social network,” a community-building tool, an object of sociological study, a marketplace, and all these other boring things that gradually soured you on it, even as it became more important to everyone else. To reiterate, in 2004, you used to literally “laugh out loud” when anyone said the word “Facebook” in your presence, and although you eventually lost that habit, you still laughed (but not out loud) whenever you logged into this website, which was generally done in a spirit of internet merrymaking and mischief. Gone were the wonderful days of meticulously crafted and recrafted America Online profiles (and AOL Instant Messenger away messages were on death’s door as well). This dumb website was the best place you had for a creative platform of peer interaction. It was a nice place to live for a couple years, but then it opened up to the general public (i.e. non-peers and Serious People), which meant that my e-persona had to adapt in unpleasant ways. The sense of dread increased, the fun decreased, but it killed all alternative platforms, so you stuck with it.
Bla, bla, bla, insert critical essay, review of the dozen intervening years, analyses of FB vis-a-vis current events, predictions and implications for the future here, you stopped using it in early 2019, logging in one last time on your birthday to “like” the inpouring of mostly impersonal birthday wishes from scores of people, 90% of which you’ve since essentially cut off all contact from, since, as previously stated, there is no alternative platform to connect with these people, whoever they were.
First Encounter:
I was in college when this was a college website. I remember how it slowly rolled out to the various institutions, and I remember signing up as soon as I was allowed to. I have a clear memory of uncontrollable laughter at a diner in 2004 when my friend said the words “the Facebook” aloud. I think his Mom was there.
Recommendations to Myself 