The social network

The other night hubby and I finally got around to watching our current Netflix DVD - The Social Network - as it had arrived before our move but we had been too busy the last few weeks to get around watching it and when we did have time we were more in the mood for a comedy than a drama.

Anyways, I LOVED the music - while Daft Punk's Tron:Legacy soundtrack was one of my favorites of 2010, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross did an awesome job on the soundtrack for this one as well and their Oscar was well deserved!

I also thought the movie was interesting and entertaining and it got me thinking back to the early days of Facebook.

As I've mentioned on here previously in other Facebook-related posts, I started using the site over winter break 2005/2006. Back then it was called The College Facebook (I still have my invite email from a friend!) and like you saw in the movie, it was exclusively for college students as you needed a .edu email and your school had to be on the list in order to sign-up.

I remember at the time NIU got Facebook there were less than 300 schools on there. It was neat to find people I went to high school with, as you could list your High School and graduating year on your profile, however I remember some of my fellow alumni had gone to schools that weren't yet on Facebook or friends that had only gone to community colleges (which none were on Facebook back then). I remember spending part of a late night at my college roommate's townhouse (the semester before we moved in together) working on my Facebook page and finding old classmates from high school. It was like www.classmates.com but better!

Back then the site was simple - you had a photo, you had your basic info like birthdate, hometown, major, relationship status, etc. Sure, The Wall existed but it was rarely used it seemed.

There was also a neat feature where you could add your courses and section number to your page so you could connect with classmates easily - came in handy if you missed a class or had a question about an assignment or even if you were planning on taking a course next semester and wanted to offer to buy the book off someone at the end of the current semester (happened to me once!). There was also the early Event feature which was moreso used to find out what parties were happening that weekend, however once it got popular people stopped using it as several people had gotten fined as their landlords or other students who worked in the apartment's leasing office would rat the party hoster out! Also, before there were "pages" for places or things to "like" there were college specific groups that were localized for that college and anyone could make them. For NIU, we had ones like "How many Cubs (or Sox) fans can we get to join?" or "I've gotten a piercing from Kenny!" "Walmart is the place to be in DeKalb!" Eventually they did away with them just being college specific and you could join groups your friends from different colleges were in.

I remember later that semester my school newspaper reported on it, as it seemed most of the campus had jumped on the bandwagon and it seemed for awhile like there was an article about Facebook every semester!

Eventually they opened it up to high schools and community colleges and before you knew it, anyone who had a valid email address. They also added applications, which no one really understood at first although Mafia Wars was a popular one at the time as well as some vampire one that never really caught on. Then came statuses and the newsfeed... so confusing at first yet they've become a part of our everyday lives!

When did you join Facebook? 

What did you think of The Social Network movie?