Wednesday, February 5, 2014

thanks for a decade of wasting time!

You may have heard that Facebook celebrated its 10th birthday this week. Can you believe it's only been 10 years? I remember it like it was yesterday...but at the same time, it seems like it's been around my whole life (and not just a third of it). Let's also reflect on the fact that in the past 10 years my net worth has increased by about $4 (with a couple of Naked palletes that I could probably liquidate to bring my net worth up to about $75), whereas Mark Zuckerberg's has gone up by like $40 billion. And we're roughly the same age. That's such an encouraging fact...

Anyway, like everyone else on earth (or FB), I made one of those little 10 year videos yesterday. And I can't figure out a way to share that here, so...great story, Erika. But I think they're fun, and the music (which is the same on every single person's) makes me feel all teary even when the pictures/factoids aren't particularly sad. I will share, though, that according to both that little video AND my own personal research, this is the first profile picture I put on Facebook:


It's blurry because it was uploaded in 2006 and pictures maxed out at like 1kb back then. I probably got this thing off a floppy disk.

Also-- help me out. According to my 10 Year video, I joined FB in 2004. But this is my first profile picture, which was uploaded December 15, 2006...were there not profile pictures the first few years? Anyone remember? Or did those just get lost somewhere over the years? I really can't remember there ever not being profile pictures, but...I could be wrong.

This morning I saw a quick little video that told you how to find your Facebook 'number'-- as in, what number person you were to join. Mark was first...the rest of us fall in line somewhere behind him. 

Now, since I was in college when FB started-- and FB was originally only open to certain colleges, mine among them-- I've always considered myself to be in the first group of people who got on board. Like, basically I discovered FB. I was on it before it was cool. (And I'm still on it, even though it's arguably less cool than ever...) But once I saw my 'number,' I felt like my whole life has been a lie. I think that in order to consider yourself one of the 'first,' you'd have to be at least in the first million users or so. And sadly...I'm not. If this thing can be believed, I was lucky number 4,904,526 to join The Facebooks. Womp womp.

However, I feel a little better when I look at my blog's Facebook page (which I just created in November). Created almost a decade after my personal profile, I come in strong at number 1,403,012,343,270,805...which does not even look like a real number to me. Like...isn't that waaaaay more than the whole world's population or something? Then again, I guess lots of people/companies/webpages have multiple pages, so it could make sense.

Anyway. I think you should look up your own personal FB number. Anyone else in the neighborhood of 4.9 million? That means we probably joined like...the same week. Or day, who knows. Wouldn't that be weird? If you joined earlier than me, feel free to keep that info to yourself. I like to be the best, which is obviously measured by how early you joined Facebook.

28 comments:

  1. Aww, wishing I hadn't deactivated my Facebook account. I'm sad that I missed out on making a 10 year video and now I'm really curious about what number I would've been when I joined way back when. I had forgotten that Facebook was only open to college kids in the beginning; pretty cool to think that we were some of the first members. It sure is a shame we didn't sign up for a share or two of that stock back then!

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  2. I remember! There weren't profile pics for awhile! I remember just being able to add people (and at the time not really understanding what that was). Pretty crazy to think how much it's changed over 10 years. I remember people throwing fits when they added 'status' updates, and then when they added videos, and really every time they changed something, ha! Oh facebook! Love the original pic!

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  3. If it makes you feel any better, I am # 710,898,352 but I joined in 2007. :) I just looked at my Facebook movie and it was pretty lame and not worth sharing! Ha ha

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  4. My video was lame-sauce. It pulls up my first profile pic as a wedding picture (which was from 2006), but I joined in 2004. And...get this, the wedding picture is so zoomed in/cropped that it is just a picture of my husband's crotch. Um, Facebook, you creep me out. That is for my eyes only. LOL. Needless to say, I will not be sharing my video like all the other awesome "I got married and had babies and my video is perfect" folk. :)

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  5. I'm number 546999778 and according to my Facebook movie I joined in 2008. I knew I was late to the game, so to speak, but wow that's a big number. Now if only Mark would send me that in dollar bills!!!

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  6. Yep, no pictures at all until late 2005 I think. I joined in 2004 but didn't post any pictures until '06. And I'm completely ignoring your rule and telling you that I'm number 4,903,424...which means two things: 1) We totally joined within a few days (or hours?) of each other! 2) I am not at all sure this thing is legit. I thought I had seen somewhere that only like 200,000 people joined before 2005.

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  7. Such a cute pic! I finally joined Facebook when MySpace began slowly dying. So, around 2007/2008? I've always been a bit behind the times. Ah well!

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  8. You are wayyyyyy cooler than me. I'm 66,801,178. Can I still feel cool for being within the first 100 million?

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  9. I didn't joun until 2009 and Facebook wasn't around when I was in college. I often wonder though how different college would have been WITH FB. I feel like I missed out on something big! Ha!

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  10. My video was lame. Apparently a picture of a 6 foot cat climber my husband and I built got more "likes" than any post about us being engaged, married or pregnant. I don't know if that says more about me, or my friends.

    Oh, and I was number 80,533,006

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  11. I LOVED my FB movie! And you joined way, way before me. I don't know why I was holding out but it was 2008 before I jumped on the FB train.

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  12. I joined in early 2007 and I was number 840,160,611. I don't know how legit this thing is though because Susan (above) has a lower number than me but said she didn't join until 2008...

    Have you seen The Social Network? It's actually a pretty interesting movie, but who knows how much truth it is based on...

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    1. It seems like most of my friends joined in 2007. I think that was the year Facebook hit Canada :)

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  13. Maybe this article will help you feel better about yourself in Facebook joining statistics? http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-find-your-facebook-number-2011-6
    It explains it better than I ever could lol.
    I had completely forgotten about the lack of profile picture and status updates "back in the day". Thanks for the throwback!

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    1. This article is great and makes a lot of sense!! Could help explain the discrepancy between Natasha & Susan's #s!

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  14. I joined back in 2004 (way too make me feel old) and I totally remember when it was only Ivy League schools and couple other "select" schools and I could not join. I was so excited when UConn accounts could join.. haha

    I am the only one that thought their personal video was kind of lame and would have totally picked other photos... BUT LOVED other people's videos.

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  15. I literally lol when I read the words floppy disk. :)

    I didn't even remember that at one point there were no profile pics!

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  16. I also joined in 2004, but my number is in the 8 millions - crazy!!! (And so was Amanda's - shocking, right?)

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  17. I joined in 2005, because that was the year I started college and that was back in the day that you had to have a college email in order to join. I was humiliated because my dad took some community college classes, so he was on there-- and this was WAY before "old people" were on Facebook. Ha! Memories, huh?

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  18. Ok, I have seriosuly been in a horrible mood today. Then I come and read your post and I feel so much better! Thanks for making me smile at you through the computer. XOX Happy Birthday Facebook :) Great first pic btw!!

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  19. I've tried this like a zillion times... why on earth can't I get my number? When I change www to graph, it just gives me an error page. : ( I'm guessing I'm 18,904,526... I joined in 05, but I was kind of late to the party. It seemed really obnoxious at first, wait, I was correct, it is obnoxious. Sam actually created my account... that's how motivated I was.

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  20. Good news, you beat me! I was #8,302,184... although I just saw that Allison apparently already looked mine up- she's a stalker!

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  21. My number is: 165,400,003. I was in college when FB came along, but my school wasn't added until later. I remember how jealous I was at the time! So, I guess my school got it around Jan 2006 according to my timeline. I can't remember how FB looked that long ago...I can't even remember yesterday very well!

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  22. For some reason, I can't get my number. My profile address isn't facebook.com/sloan.name though, it has id=4920554 at the end. So maybe I'm 4,920,554, but I joined in May 2005 (I think) so I don't think that's right. I was about to graduate from high school and remember being so excited you could join.

    And I know there were profile pics when I joined because I was friends with my random roommate, but she didn't have a picture and it killed me because I wanted to know what she looked like!

    Anyway, it's crazy how far Facebook has come!

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  23. Wow, I'm 504,614,418... that's kind of interesting to see!

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  24. Hi, I read your blog sometimes because it is linked to the blog of a friend from UGA. I think I understand the whole facebook ID thing, and I'm pretty sure you were an earlier user than you think. When facebook was only available at colleges, each new college got its own ID number. Georgia was #49, which is why everyone who you went to college with would have an ID that starts with 49. The following digits represent the order in which you joined among UGA students, so you're the 4,526th person to join at the 49th school that had facebook. They changed the ID number system when facebook opened to everyone. So maybe you are cooler than you thought. =)

    Just thought you might be interested to know. I love your blog!

    - Brooks (Mollyanne's friend from UGA)

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