Today is my first Faceversary (i.e. Facebook + Anniversary = Faceversary) of the day I rejoined Facebook. Now that it’s been exactly one year since I rejoined the social network I thought it would be a good idea to share my first-year experience.
Overall, my first 12 months on Facebook went really well. However, things have definitely changed since I left the social network in 2006. The site went through some major redesigns and a boatload of new features were added. I remember when the Facebook Wall was the only feature on the social network that people huddled around.
Although there were no site redesigns or updates to privacy settings during this past year, Facebook did introduce the Social Inbox which was accompanied by a @facebook.com email address. Aside from this new messaging system, everything else remains the same – for now.
Nonetheless, immediately after I completed the sign-up process I was crushed with friend requests from all angles. Although these requests came from people I know in real life, the number of requests were upwards of 250 within a 36-hour period. I’m not complaining, by the way. It was nice to receive friend requests from people I lost touch with over the years, but to be honest, it was a little surprising simply because I didn’t expect so many people to find me in such a short time. When I originally joined the social network in 2005 I might have only received 30ish friend requests the first two weeks. That was it – 30ish. I guess that’s what happens when a company grows its user base from a few million to nearly 500 million in a few short years. Well done, Facebook.
So after getting situated on Facebook, I connected with a lot of old friends and acquaintances, shared tons of photos, and interacted with brands that I use often. Although I keep in touch with a lot of good friends from high school and college, it was nice to catch up with other people that I haven’t seen or spoke to in several years. Even though I don’t get a chance to interact with everyone on my friend’s list, I truly enjoy reading about the goals, accomplishments, and all the different things that are happening in the lives of all my family and friends. For those reasons, Facebook gets a thumbs up from me.
While I made it through my first year without any scraps, bumps, or bruises, I did notice a few annoyances along the way that caused the user experience to suffer slightly. I’ll highlight a few of these annoyances on the next page, but in no specific order since they’re all equally annoying.
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