10 Years on Facebook

On May 29, 2005, I decided to sign up for an account on a relatively new social media site called The Facebook.  A "facebook," if you didn't know, is a yearbook for incoming freshmen, to be used to attach names to faces among your fellow incoming class (and, truth be told, to identify cute guys or gals that you wanted to introduce yourself to).  Facebook the site was a digital version of that, a way to make connections with people you shared interests with.  Indeed, my prod to join myself was my student interns at the time, who were meeting each other virtually even before they started working together because their shared connection to the non-profit where I was working created an opportunity to connect and learn about each other. 

At the time, Facebook was only open to people with .edu email addresses at certain schools.  Since I was a grad student at Penn at the time, I was able to get an account and I quickly signed up, added my interns as friends, and populated my profile.  

You could say I've added a few friends since then.  Facebook, of course, has exploded in the past 10 years.  It's had its hiccups, but largely it has become an incredible resource for connecting with people and sharing life together.  (By the way, when "News Feed" was first implemented, there was an uproar; now, it's hard to imagine Facebook without it.)

To my Facebook friends, thanks for connecting with me.  Please continue to post pictures of your meals, kids, and vacations; please rant about politics and social justice; please celebrate highs and mourn lows.  You make my life richer from it all.