Facebook as a time capsule to life prior to the 2020s

I grew up during the rise of Facebook and was pretty active on it until around 2020/Covid, when it became more TikTokified, and the feed became filled with posts from pages I didn't follow. And I've noticed I'm not the only one. It used to be that if you were wondering what someone was up to, you'd check their Facebook, but I've noticed that when I check someone's profile, more often than not haven't been updated since 2020. Same goes for Instagram, where a lot of people seemed to have stopped posting around 2020-22.

Recently, when feeling nostalgic, I'll look through my old Facebook albums or go through my friends' list and click on people's profiles and browse through pictures. It's weird, I know. We used to call it 'Facebook Stalking'. It was something that was looked down on, but everyone still did it. But now, I view it more as a time capsule to life in the 2000s and early 2010s, capturing moments from the days when life felt simpler and less digital distractions. I don't do any deep dives into past posts, but will browse a couple of pictures. I find it interesting to see how people change as they grow up. Being reminded of all the trends and cultural moments from different eras.

In some ways, I see it back to the origins of social media, when it was centered around having a cool profile. In fact when Facebook introduced the feed in 2006, it caused an uproar as users saw it as an invasion of privacy and said the feed felt like stalking, shifting away from curated profiles, which were welcoming people to view what you uploaded.

Which is how I currently have my profile. My profile is essentially me saying, "This is who I was mid-2000s through 2020" and if someone wants to browse around, I'm fine with that.