46 Pictures From Early Facebook That Will Give You Intense Cringe Flashbacks To 2009
The days of early Facebook were truly a different time.
I got a Facebook when I was 13, around 2008, just as Myspace was declining and Facebook was gaining really widespread popularity.
Social media was still pretty new, plus it was filled with teenagers. And...let's just say we didn't always show our best selves.
NBC
Here are 46 things we all (regrettably) did on Facebook in those early days that are just pure cringe to see now:
1.Remember how every status would automatically start with "[your name] is" so you'd end up having statuses like, "is vacation" or "is Taylor Swift concert!" Those grammatical errors haunt me.
2.And how we used to end every status with "textit<3" or "cellme"? Just...why?
3. Was it just me, or did anyone else literally subtweet people or post major cries for help as my statuses?
4.Or just post a vague song lyric to describe your current mental state.
The original subtweet.
5.Or inside jokes that literally no one else would know, just so you sounded cool.
6. Remember when you could add bumper stickers to your profile?
7. And — barf — pieces of flair?
8.The amount that we used XD and =P truly disturbs me.
9.As does the fact that I used to post entire novels for people's birthdays on their walls.
Couldn't I have said all that privately? Did I really need the whole world to read this?
10. Why did we think games like Farmville were so fun, and why did we insist on inviting every one of our online friends to play?
11.Remember the people who would post "LMS" statuses?
12.It was always thrilling when people would offer to do "truth is"...and very cringey to actually get the reluctant "truth."
You'd get things like "tbh ur funny" or "tbh i don't really know u that well."
13.Remember those photos where you would tag your friends as different characters?
How were "the blonde" and "the ginger" full-on identities?
14.Although my worst nightmare was to be tagged in one of these:
I never replied. It was always someone I went to dance class with and barely knew.
15.Or, god forbid, a NOTE:
These were like chain emails but worse.
16.Especially if it was a poem:
I truly wish I could go back in time to a moment when I had not read the above poem.
17.I guess it was kind of nice to be tagged in stuff like this:
Unless, of course, you were one of the nontrue friends.
18.Or this, even though it's definitely cringey, looking back:
Someone needs to go back in time to 2010 and tell them that bejeweled sweatsuits won't be cool in the future.
19.Or, even worse...post a picture of ourselves with a dramatic song lyric that did not apply to the photo:
My friend used to get so annoyed when people would use "white lips, pale face, breathing in the snowflakes" as a caption on snow photos, since the lyrics are pretty clearly about cocaine and not snow.
20.Remember mirror selfies with the flash on?
Why did we never turn off the flash?
21.Or the classic duck face and peace sign?
I don't know about you guys, but I NEVER looked cute when I did this.
22.We got minion memes a bit later on:
Why do minions always hate their family/wife?
23. But nothing compares with early Facebook memes:
Dear Parents... from funny
Bonus points if it was the above quote but the minions version.
24.Why did we feel the need to post quotes like this and tag our friends??
25.Or post pictures of words written in the sand?
It was always "love" or "summer." Or your name.
26.Or spell out words with our hands?
Why were we obsessed with the word "love"?
27.Or make hearts with our hands?
This was just a precursor to doing sorority symbols with your hands in college.
28.Why did we like SO MANY random pages??
And why were there entire pages just for one joke? Couldn't that just be a status? What did belonging to that page do for us?
29.And create groups for everything — from school projects to concerts — but ESPECIALLY to collect numbers after losing our phones.
30.Nothing makes me cringe now like a Picnik-edited photo:
That's me on the left. Peep the side bangs.
31.Except maybe photos from Photo Booth with filters so strong, you could barely see them:
~So artsy.~
32.Or the ones that distorted your face:
Not the most flattering.
33.Did anyone else make endless FaceInHole pics, or was that just me??
I thought I looked so hot, and it wasn't even me.
34.Among my fondest Facebook memories are when people I didn't like got hacked, although the notifications with them selling shoes at discount prices were annoying:
One time, a family friend got hacked and they changed her name to "Kelly Kicksluver," and I still laugh about it.
35.Why did we think people wanted to see our feet?
^At least they're not all Converse in that picture.
36.Or our faces staring down at them in a circle?
Kind of creepy.
37.Or us lying on the grass with friends?
Who was taking these photos?
38.And did we really think that these pages asking to bring back the old versions of Facebook would work?
Also, does anyone remember the Jake and Amir sketch on this?
39.I shudder to remember the time we all posted Disney characters as our profile pictures:
I picked Belle, of course.
40.Remember getting into epic poke wars?
Also, remember the word "epic"?
41.And all the memes about poke wars?
Also, this meme format.
42.And uploading 80,000 blurry pictures after going to a concert?
^Yes, this is from a Taylor Swift concert. My first, actually.
43.I am saddened to see that the "most people will scroll past this" posts are still a staple among the older crowd on Facebook:
Who starts these??
44.I really don't think anyone wanted to see the screenshots of the Skype sessions we were always posting:
^They were usually a lot blurrier than this, too.
45.Or of our high scores on games like Flappy Bird:
^Okay, but this was a pretty good score.
46.And finally, the thing we should all be most embarassed of...those chain statuses we would post so that Facebook "couldn't use our pictures":
Oh, sweet summer children. We really thought Facebook wasn't already using our photos/info.
