Facebook Celebrates 7th Anniversary: What Was Your First Facebook Experience?

Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, was created seven years ago today, on February 4, 2004.

Less than a decade later, it has 550 million members spending over 700 billion minutes a month on the site, which is available in more than 70 languages and has been valued at over $50 billion.

Happy birthday Facebook. My, how you've grown.

Facebook was originally "Thefacebook.com" and was initially open only to Harvard students, then other college students, then high-schoolers, then, finally, the general public. Today 70% of its users are outside the U.S.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has received both accolades and his fair share of criticism: he was honored as TIME's Person of the Year, has been likened to Steve Jobs, and was celebrated for his generous philanthropy. He's also suffered intense scrutiny, particularly when it comes to privacy. In instant message conversations he sent as a young twenty-something while at Harvard, Zuckerberg mocked Facebook's early users, calling them "dumb f--ks" for sharing "over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS" with his site (He's since apologized).

Given how much we share with the website, our Facebook profiles have become intimate, personal repositories for our memories and activities, both online and off. They are the online equivalent to a treasured box of old photos, messages, and ticket stubs. For many, breakups and hookups, birthdays and births, have played out on the site.

What does Facebook mean to you? Share your first Facebook memory with us using the "Add a Slide" button below, or tweet it using the hashtag "#Facebookmemory."

 

In honor of Facebook's 7th anniversary, we want to hear from you: What was your first experience on the social network?

What's your first Facebook memory?

Find a picture, click the participate button, add a title and upload your picture

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pre-digital camera craze, ordering cd\'s w/ your picture prints to change your facebook picture #facebookmemory

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Comments

[lolyla]

12:31 AM on 02/08/2011

I remember when it was limited to .edu addresses. I was mad because I was no longer in school. I followed it until it began open enrollment and I still use it.

[ChiProgressive]

04:34 PM on 02/06/2011

My friend who worked in Undergraduate Studies warned me that one of the deans was using www.thefacebook.com to spy on students that had academic/behavioral problems. This was in the Spring of 2005 when you could look at profiles of the Ivy League kids that already had Facebook for a whole year.

That's why this was my first photo of my new profile, sans my surname. People didn't/don't realize that Facebook owns everything you post.

[Laura Thompson-Schaeffer]

02:17 PM on 02/06/2011

helped me get out of a seriously abusive relationship by seeing my husbands Tweets demeaning me & bullying me publicly. I LOVE YOU Facebook! follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/MILKTHERAPY or connect with me on Facebbok http://www.facebook.com/LauraThompsoninLevyland

[Ramon Moreno]

04:11 PM on 02/07/2011

Self-promoting attention hoes love those sites. Your poor husband.

[awaismcm]

11:12 AM on 02/06/2011

Love you facebook as you make blog a real time boost thanks
facebook
Regards:
http://goolgeme.blogspot.com

[Clay Rehmus]

05:03 PM on 02/05/2011

I've been on it since June '04.

[ChiProgressive]

10:10 PM on 02/06/2011

Did you go to Cornell?

[dnb310]

04:40 PM on 02/05/2011

I'll always remember how difficult the f@ckbook made it to cancel my account.

[ChiProgressive]

10:09 PM on 02/06/2011

how hard was it?

[dnb310]

10:23 PM on 02/06/2011

I had to cancel my acct because it was hacked and every person that I've ever sent an emil to (as in employers, ex's, relatives... everyone) started receiving spam w/ my name on it.

They make it about as difficult as they can. First, the link on the main page, or your wall, or whatever the f@ck you call it, that says cancel here, does not cancel the account, it only suspends it. If you click on anything with a facebook connection, it's back up.

The actual link to permanently cancel is buried somewhere deep in the fine print. Don't bother looking, you wont find it. Do a google search and ind the link in an post that a third party has posted.

Once you find that link, there is a 2-4 week lag time for the acct to be actually removed, there is no way of telling how long. During that time if you do happen to click on a facebook link, your account is back up.

Not exactly hard labor, but certainly harder than it needs to be.

[dnb310]

10:26 PM on 02/06/2011

The default setting is chump.

[jabailo]

10:41 AM on 02/05/2011

My memory, was oh darn, another "trend" guess I better join Facebook. Then I poked around it for a while and thought...kind of boring.

[jeffcarroll]

10:05 AM on 02/05/2011

I think I joined 2006ish...the majority of my friends started popping up around the same time...

[eric14]

10:05 AM on 02/05/2011

Facebook encourages having same friends through life which inhibits personal and social change.
It is a characteristic of traditional and conservative premodern societies - not of highly mobile modern ones.

[Clay Rehmus]

05:03 PM on 02/05/2011

I seriously LOL'ed at that.

[EveAngel]

12:07 AM on 02/05/2011

Let's hear it for the originals: geocities.com and theglobe.net!!

*crickets..

anyone? hello?

[AllureAye]

02:26 PM on 02/06/2011

Xanga.

[Rich Phitzwell]

08:13 PM on 02/04/2011

I enjoy poking my hot friends

[bcgd]

06:27 PM on 02/04/2011

I'll throw it out there once...
Stay away from facebook. Once you sign up your ISP is diligently watched. Like it isnt by Uncle sam but i digress.
Do you think he makes money selling space for ads or information on demographics.
It blows me away the coverage this gets and how much people love it.
Im already getting dated @ 27 saying phone txt and email is enough to try and hide from.
Never signed up for myspace and I didnt miss much.
You honestly want to put you personal life online to be F'ed with. Not that I have enemies but why make it so incredibly easy to be watched by someone you dont know?
And btw its not secure if someone wants to see your "private" gallery without being your frined it takes 3 count them 1 2 3 copy and past steps right from the home page to be viewing your "private" info and downloading all your pictures (ladies). I dont but have seen the process, just saying there was a savings/loan, .com, labor, housing, healthcare, boom and myspace bust. Is facebook going to ruin our economy or your life? Probably not people that love it @ their seven year anniversary will be betrayed by it. If it even stays around much longer with "Net Neutralty" and COMNBCGEUniversal running the flow of information.

Rant off but keep posting his logo or shate eating grin please do.

[Rich Phitzwell]

08:07 PM on 02/04/2011

Most smaller sites know more about you than you would think. On everyone one of my sites that I have developed I can see pretty much everything about your computer IP address if your returning etc. I use it optimize the sites and gauge what browsers to target or ignore. Sleep tight.

[EveAngel]

12:05 AM on 02/05/2011

It's pretty hard to remain anonymous in USA these days. You are tracked and recorded by cellphone, Debit Card usage, using search engines, etc. so one more log on the fire won't affect you anymore differently.

[LogicCircuit]

11:51 PM on 02/05/2011

I think the original person was talking about fellow internet users, not FB itself or THE Government. Facebook simply makes it much easier to steal your identity or stalk the h*ll out of you.

[jkpcguru]

06:22 PM on 02/04/2011

In 2004, MySpace was kind of a big deal! At first MySpace was cool. Then then weirdos and the camgirls started abusing the site. In the summer of 2004, I found out about facebook and signed up. I was stoked that only college students could get on and that most of my high school friends were either already on facebook or joining soon after. By the end of that summer, 98% of my high school friends were on Facebook. I found out that one guy who I knew wasn't in college was using another guys college email address to sign up for facebook. Too this day, most of my high school friends are still on facebook and I still keep in touch with them like I never stopped seeing them. Facebook has given me the tools to do what my parents wish they could of done.. Keep close ties to friends from their youth.

[updapunx]

06:15 PM on 02/04/2011

I've had my fb 3 or 4 years & have 31 friends! in your face!

[Oregonian76]

01:23 PM on 02/04/2011

I resisted for a while. My youngest brother signed up in 2005. He was pushing both MySpace and Facebook on the rest of the family. We're all pretty spread out around the country and having a way to communicate, share photos, etc was enticing.

So I signed up in early 2006 and haven't looked back. It's been great to get connected with other relatives, old classmates, even old colleagues that I thought I'd never hear from or see again.

I think that, if you take responsibility for what you post and how you manage your information, social networking can be a very good thing.