Facebook - Our First Taste Of Social Media

Ah, Facebook. The first time most of us (particularly people around my age - 27) had our first taster of what social media would be like. Facebook was THE website everyone wanted to create a profile on in 2008/2009. After MSN, Facebook was the next thing I would check to see if any of my school friends had updated their status. Facebook allowed us to connect with so many people in our local town/city, even beyond that.


Fast forward to 2020. Well, Facebook is not seen as everybody's favourite app. I think it's safe to say it's caused us some grief one way or another over the years. Those direct/indirect statuses at someone, the arguments in the comments section and being pissed off at Sandra next door for lighting fireworks at 1am and broadcasting it on her profile. I think the only reason I use Facebook now is to check for any gossip and find out who's having a baby. moving into a new house or getting engaged/married. 


The thing is, so many apps came along and took over Facebook in terms of popularity. Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, even Tumblr have gone up in terms of popularity and demand over the years. 


As much as we all like to think of Facebook negatively nowadays, I wanted to write this post to take a look back on the times when Facebook used to be a fun and in a way, an innocent platform that we all enjoyed once upon a time. Do you remember doing one of these things? -


1) Liking 'those' pages

'Like if you like tomato ketchup' 
'Like if you like McDonalds' 
'Like if you've seen Titanic more than 16 times'  

Yeah, you name it, somebody created a page titling it with anything and everything. The thing is, back in the day, we all ended up clicking the like button. It just seemed the right thing to do!

2) Poking people

And that isn't a euphemism. Poking somebody was the same as sending somebody three loves on Bebo. Ah Bebo, what a platform. Anyway, poking someone to get their attention on Facebook was equivalent to swiping right on Tinder. The good thing about poking someone on Facebook has it was unlimited, you could easily piss off someone if you had a devilish mood on you!


3) Playing games

I remember playing Text Twist after school every time I came home. There were so many other games that we could play, I can't remember many others but if you can, let me know in the comments!

4) Are you more of an angel or a devil?

Those quizzy things where you answer a question or two and it says 'You're 97% devil' and it gives you reasons why you are. More often than not, it's a load of rubbish!

5) Having very public conversations on our friend's profiles

I look back on my memories every day to see what I got up on this day 1, 2, 3 even 10 years ago. I look back at cringe sometimes at some of the conversations I had with my Facebook friends for the whole world to see. Messenger didn't really exist back then. If you wanted a conversation with someone, it had to be made in the public domain. It meant writing something on your friends profile then waiting for them to reply with them writing something on your profile. It was never gripping stuff, more often than not it was my college friends asking me what to write for D1 on our next assignment. 

6) Starting our statuses with 'is'

"Is excited for the Summer holidays!"
"Is doing nothing"
"Is going to bed"
"Is eating a KFC"



Yep, we started a status with 'Is'. Back then, we thought we had to make grammatical sense. God knows why we did that, we just did. 


What are your memories of when you first started using Facebook? Let me know!

50 comments
  1. Oh I love this Lucy! My favourite feature that facebook offers is the memories bit. I tend to only post my 'happy days' posts on instagram and link to facebook. It is so lovely to look back each year to see what we were doing each year on that day.

    I do cringe when I think back to early FB. My first ever post on facebook was my now almost 13 year old sons scan picture!! I love it when that pops up x

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    1. Thank you Claire!
      I love looking at the memories too, some are so funny or unforgettable!
      Haha I cringe when I look back on old Facebook posts/status, some things I can't believe I wrote! x

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  2. Ahh this brings back so many memories, I used to love facebook, I don't go on it much anymore but occasionally check it for events, see who has got engaged and married. x


    Zoey | www.zoeyolivia.com

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    1. Yeah I'm the same Zoey, I barely use the platform anymore, I think I pretty much use it for the same reasons as you now, to check for engagements, marriage or pregnancies! x

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  3. My old favourite has to be Bebo, I adored it and having the most 'love' was such a status thing!

    Danielle
    https://www.thereluctantblogger.co.uk/

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    1. Oh god I remember Bebo, giving three loves to someone everyday!

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  4. Bebo was my favourite, I used to love spending hours changing my themes!

    Love, Amie ❤
    The Curvaceous Vegan

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    1. Changing themes on Bebo was my favourite thing to do too Amie! x

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  5. Haha, that's fun to look back on. Throwing sheep at people was a weird one... I started my account just after I started uni back in 2006 - that was when you still needed a .ac.uk email address to sign up!

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    1. Throwing sheep?!
      Jeez I never knew that you needed a .ac.uk email address to first sign up! I signed up in 2009 so I didn't have to worry about that then!

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  6. I honestly don't remember my first FB post. I actually really don't like the platform at all, I use it for blogging opps and for the company FB pages I have to manage. Give me Twitter every time! But this was a fun post to look back on, thank you :)

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    1. Nah I couldn't tell you mine either Lisa! I agree, Twitter is the best!

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  7. Oh God, I cringe at the old stuff on my facebook and the convos I had with friends, all in text speech as well 😂 I used facebook all the time years ago, I loved the games on there, but now I hardly use it. Like you I just like to have a nosey at other people and see what they are getting up to. Do you have loads of people from school, that you wouldn't ever talk to in real life on yours too, like I do? 😂

    Aimsy xoxo
    Aimsy’s Antics

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    1. Using text speech seemed to be a must on Facebook when having a conversation with friends! I'm still nosey on Facebook today Aimsy, I can't help it!
      YES I DO! I think 95% of the people I went to school with who I'm friends with on Facebook I don't talk to in real life! xx

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  8. I think you've nailed it with this post! I cringe sometimes when I see what I posted 10 years ago! Thanks for sharing.

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  9. All so relevant 😂 I tried to unlike some of the random pages but there's just so many 😂 x

    Nicola | nicoladaletraining.com

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    1. Oh I know, I can't believe how many pages I liked in the past! x

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  10. This is such a throwback post. I remember poke wars where no matter how much it annoyed you, you didn't want to be beat. Farmville was also really big when I first had it.

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    1. I love hearing that you had poke wars, I know I did! OMG I forgot about Farmville!

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  11. This made me laugh so much! My first social media memories are of MySpace and Bebo and Facebook feels a lot further down the line in my head but YES, I agree so much with all of these. I deleted my Facebook after I left uni and this was such a throwback for me. All of those dumb like pages! 😂 x

    Sophie
    www.glowsteady.co.uk

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    1. I did love Bebo, it was such a fun platform! It'll take me forever to unlike all the pages I liked back in the day! x

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  12. Love this post! I used to have poking wars with my friends on Facebook haha, and writing on each others walls as well, I also cringe when I see my memories pop up of me writing on someones wall! I used to write 'going to bed now, good night' on my Facebook as a status and now it just sounds so stupid hahaha xx

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    1. Poking wars the funniest thing about Facebook back in the day! Haha I wrote that status quite a lot! xx

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  13. Oh wow this post gave me strong nostalgia at the joy I used to have using Facebook. I have deleted Facebook as too many people try to pry into your life and pretend they understand. The days of playing games, liking ridiculous pages, and being excited when your friends join, oh and the god awful statues about every single little thing haha

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    1. Yeah people are just incredibly nosey and always want to pry into your personal and private life! Facebook does bring back lovely memories sometimes!

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  14. Oh I love this! I used to poke people repeatedly haha. One game I used to love was FarmVille!

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    1. I remember Farmville, that brings back memories!

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  15. Oh my this brings back so many memories - And not the awful Facebook kind hehe! X

    Hollie | HollieAnnBowe.com

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    1. Haha it's nice to think of the nice Facebook from years ago rather than what it's like now! x

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  16. haha I love this! I remember going liking everything on Facebook back in the day, and now I look back on some of those pages and wonder what I was on. Also totally with you on only going on there now to get the goss xx

    Hannah | https://luxuryblush.co.uk/

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    1. I do the same Hannah, I look at the pages I liked back in the day and wonder why on Earth I would like that page in the first place! I'm the same, I use Facebook now just to look out for the gossip! xx

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  17. My first taste of social media was MySpace back in 2006! Then I moved onto Facebook, which was much better back then than it is now. I don't use it at all anymore, Twitter is now my favourite platform!

    Nicola | Nic's Healthy Life

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    1. Twitter is amazing, I never had MySpace purely because I didn't understand it!

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  18. I remember the days of poking people, I first got FB when I was 17 and I just wanted as many "friends" as possible haha. Great post, made me nostalgic xx

    Kiran | www.alittlekiran.co.uk

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    1. I think we were all wanting lots of friends when we first started using Facebook Kiran! xx

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  19. I miss poking people... It was fun 🤣

    Lee | Wrestlingwithhotels.co.uk

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  20. Ahh I love this! Public conversations on Facebook with my school friends pretty much sums up my childhood. I went through the pages that I liked on Facebook a couple of years back and there were so many really strange ones on there :')

    https://www.femaleoriginal.com

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    1. I look at the pages I liked in the past and I can't believe I actually liked them in the first place!

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  21. I remember when I first logged onto facebook. It was just as we were coming out of the Bebo era. Games and photos were the main motivation back then but I'll never forget getting to customise your own page on Bebo.

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    1. Ah yes, Facebook arrived just as Bebo was ending! I miss the changing the theme on Bebo!

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  22. Oh my god this post brought back so many memories! I could relate to so many of these. I remember I used to poke the boys I fancied in the hopes of getting their attention hahah 😂 what even was that! Loved reading this x

    Lauren | itslaurenvictoria.co.uk

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    1. Haha I did that too! It was definitely one way of trying to get their attention! x

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  23. Thanks for sharing, I started with MySpace which I had when I finished my first year at uni, I do miss it though, but facebook was new in 2006 so I was one of those first people to have accounts, I wish it was just that, to much now!!

    Nic | Nic's Adventures & Bakes

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    1. Facebook does seem to have changed so much over years to the point it isn't as fun anymore x

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  24. Oh god I barely even use Facebook anymore but I remember it being super important as a teenager and the on wall conversations just make me cringe looking back at them

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    1. Haha they make me cringe too Alice when I look back on mine!

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  25. This post is sooo nostalgic. I used to be obsessed with Facebook - I remember creating my profile with my mates because we had an American student with us. We thought we were so cool, having a profile before anyone else at school.
    I never use FB anymore, I go on there to do a little stalk but nothing else. How times have changed!
    Rosie

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    1. That's probably the only time I use Facebook is to have a good nose at people's statuses!

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