As Facebook turns 10 this year, it's nearly impossible to imagine a world without it. Remember when you had to actually wait for high school reunions to find out if your prom date had kids? When your romantic relationships weren't ordained by a few lines of code?
For better or for worse, Facebook has fundamentally changed the way human beings communicate and operate, even in the non-digital world. As such, the social networking site with over a billion users has inspired a host of generation-specific neuroses. It's survival of the fittest in the digital ether, and women have developed a few adaptations as to be become suitable to the virtual world. We've rounded up the top 10 most decidedly female Facebook habits below. But let's be real, surely the fellas feel the pressure too.
1. You know a good hair day is an opportunity to refill your arsenal of profile pics for the year.
… But you also know that candid moments with friends are way more fun.
2. You know the "View as (select friend)" feature was probably created by someone who just ended a relationship. And you are endlessly grateful.
3. You know how to manipulate your privacy settings in a way that approximates un-friending. Because you're not THAT passive aggressive.
4. When you start dating someone, you immediately polish up your public-facing profile. He/she should see your pretty face and impressive job, but not your "
5. You know that your profile/cover picture personality is a digital distillation of everything you are. And you're kind of OK with that.
6. Starting around age 25 your News Feed will become an unrelenting stream of newly hyphenated last names and infant photos. (Don't get us started on ultrasounds.)
...But you can never bring yourself to get rid of the oddly comforting digital presence of home. So you keep them around.
7. Every time you receive a message, you pledge to alter your settings so senders can't see you've "Read" it before you're ready to respond. But you never do.
8. This option on anything inspires abject terror. Is my recent Spanx purchase going to show up on my News Feed?
…Or the "What kind of emoji are you?" quiz that I did while procrastinating at work?
9. Your Facebook knows who your BFFs are...
...And you would never, ever put up an unflattering picture of them. No matter how good you look in it.
10. And while Facebook can make you feel as if you've fallen behind in life...
…Hopefully, you realize that most of your friends and family also carefully curate their virtual images, showcasing only their proudest of moments and best of hair days. Just because you don't have a sepia-toned lobster roll on your News Feed doesn't make you any less interesting.
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