Today marked the 10th anniversary of Facebook. For some, this doesn't mean much other than that a website
has been live for a decade, but for a whole generation, it means much, much
more. A decade on, it has felt emotional looking back at our first Facebook
days, when we had no idea this ‘website you can poke people on’ would change
our lives forever.
As our news feeds filled up today
with ‘First Profile Pictures’ and Facebook Look Back, it was difficult not to recognise
the ways in which Facebook has dramatically changed our world, in our time. Every
relationship it’s helped to build, every conflict it has caused, every moment
it has shared, every individual it has inspired or comforted – all these things
have added up to a brand new world.
Working with Facebook daily, I’ve often
had the thought; “how different would our lives have been if Mark Zuckerberg hadn't turned his ideas into reality?” Aside from the fact my entire career
has been built on Facebook’s foundations, for me it kick started a brand
new culture, a culture which has 100% carved our paths. A little culture they call Social Media.
Facebook came along and set-off an avalanche. It’s thrown this new, global,
scary ingredients into the already mental mix we call earth, and there has been
an explosion.
Oh, there have been bad times – let’s
not forget the drawbacks to Social Media. It can be so destructive, it
encourages narcissism, people have developed FOMO. There is the unhealthy
insight into other people’s lives, the unfortunate rise of the selfie that we
just can’t help but take, perceived loneliness...there’s a lot of questionable
side-effects in there. Then there is the safety factor. Who can see our photos
and details of our private lives? How do we share in this way whilst staying
out of harm’s way? Bringing people closer together also means bringing bad
things into some people’s lives, and we are still learning as a society how to
manage that.
All of this has been recognised and
discussed endlessly, in the same way any society continues to evolve and reflect. Countless magazine articles have talked about Social Media addiction, news reports have
warned of the dangers of over-sharing online, campaigns have begun when lives
have been lost over social media bullying. On a less serious note, we also sometimes
just get damn fed up of it. More than once I have deactivated my Facebook account,
needing a break from it. As my wise mother once said “being on Facebook is
like being at a constant party” and I think there is something in that – how else
do we explain the correlative rise of 'Popcorn Brain' and need for
Headspace amongst young people?
Yet with all that said, today
Facebook has over 1 BILLION users. That’s China. No community of that
size is going to be 100% safe, 100% happy or 100% healthy. Asking for it to be
is a pipe dream, but are those downsides really enough for us to throw it away?
Of course not, because for all the question marks around this untamed beast, to
say Facebook has done a hell of a lot of good would be an understatement.
What other community can bring so
many people together in a matter of seconds? What other community allows you to learn
so much more about the world you live in and see more of it than was ever
possible before? What other community gives each individual a voice? We see
everything on Facebook, from global disasters to Tom McFlys baby announcement to Mavis from next door’s Victoria Sponge, and I can’t imagine the world any
other way.
For me, Social Media is still very
much on a learning curve. It is a wild creature and an entire new way of
living, communicating and learning. It is so, so young. I am so passionate
about Social Media, all that it has done for our world and all it can do for
each of us, but I also know we are the cavemen of its time. In years to come,
the Social Media era will go down in history, and how they will laugh at us
newbies, using it so unwisely, still paving the way. I feel proud of being part of a generation who believed in something new, brave enough to do something
different and become founders of something incredible. For better or for worse, Facebook will always have a big place in my heart and I think there is a whole lot more opportunity to
come.
x
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