Once upon a Time in Facebook

I created a Facebook account to play Farmville.

That would be a truth that most early Facebook users in the Philippines are guilty of. Before the emergence of Facebook most teenagers born from the Generations Y and early Gen. Z uses Friendster, 6 Degrees and the legendary Are You Hot or Not?, Of course!!, Who would ever forget that platform, a site known to have nurtured milion of insecurities. Majority of the people born from the 1980's to 1990's definitely used Friendster as their first social media platform, if you have accounts on Myspace, Photobucket Flickr or any other "ancient" social media sites, I suppose you're way too old by now, probably sitting on your cozy sofa— reading this article while your kids are busy scrolling through Facebook; or maybe they aren't your kids— maybe they're your grandchildren, and after years of watching the development of the internet, at last!!! By the power of luck you managed to stay alive just in time when Facebook arrive in 2004.

The emergence of Facebook undeniably brought the extinction of most early social media platforms, but some of this sites were not really vanquished and was just converted into sites that now used for other purposes, different from what they were originally supposed to. Facebook— after a decade and half managed to remain on top and survived much longer than its short-lived counterparts. 

Farmville Banner Poster

If you started using Facebook because of Farmville, well, as I mentioned earlier you're not alone, because many of us pretty started the same way. I still remember when I was on 7th grade, Farmville was so popular that my classmates talks about it every single morning. I felt so deeply out of place back then, I remember myself sitting in the corner while listening to my friends bragging about how great they felt every time they harvest crops, I was there silent, speechless, patiently listening, not having even the slightest idea on what they were talking about. I was so eager to find out what that game was, the only problem is that were too poor. Smartphones were already widespread by that time, those gadgets were already the trend and yet our only phone was an almost broken Nokia 3315. We were so damn broke that I can't even afford to buy the cheapest snack in our canteen. You may not believe me but I spent the first 10 years of my life clueless about how technology works, we got our first family TV when I was 10 and I was already 13 when I finally touched a keyboard for the first time in my life, (Thanks to my bad influence classmate who taught me how to play Counter-Strike).

I wanted to have a Facebook account just to play Farmville during those times, but you know what? Deep within me lies a deeper reason aside from my mere desire to experience the thrill of playing that game. The truth why I built myself an account is that I wanted to be kinda part of something— to always be part of the "conversation". Whether you admit it or not I believe you were once like me— pushed by peer pressure. We Teenagers during our time loves to go with the flow, we always follow the famous fads and is constantly trying to keep up with what is in the trend, because after all we were all just curious youngsters then. No matter how many times you deny you can never run away from the truth, let's face it, we were always afraid to be left behind in this ever-changing society. We want to express that we can do what other people can do, we wanted to show that we can also obtain the same things that other people possess. We always wanted to have opinions on recent things and that deep inside we always dreamt to be a cool kid too, that was all of us back then. Meer kids who are trying to fit into the world, afraid to not catch up to society's pace.

Fate has blessed me at last when a close friend of mine (Ezekiel T. Cadiz❤️❤️) gave me his old phone out of pity. After receiving such a wonderful gift I quickly open the built-in Facebook App without a single hesitation and ask my friend for a little assistance on creating my first-ever FB account— little did I know that by clicking that create an account button my life would change significantly. 

Unfortunately Farmville wasn't that famous anymore when I made the account. All my classmates had then moved into a new trend while I am still stuck to a fading online game. The good thing is that I became more connected with our relatives, I will talk to my grandparents through chats and let them know our current situation which in turn played to our favor later. After years of having no connection with them, Finally, with the help of Facebook— we were able to connect with them. They started aiding us financially which made our life here a little bit easier. Facebook drew us closer after a decade of isolation, the 213.7 miles distance that separates us from each other vanished upon a single click from my fingertip. I was so amazed by the wonders of such an amazing technology, which is understandable because looking back I was so naive and ignorant about the world then.

I didn't only used Facebook to connect with my relatives I used it to connect with my classmates too, I often talk with them every afternoon right after the end of class, After many months of using the app I slowly realized that Facebook has become our second meeting place, we were not there physically yet we can talk virtually, retelling lame jokes, anecdotes, sharing the answers from our assignments, exchanging images of known personalities on their bikinis, There [Facebook] we do anything that could give us a good laugh. Day by day I started earning new friends from the classroom and from our community, There I realized that I was now part of a social circle— no longer isolated and clueless about things as I am before. As time passed by Facebook slowly became an integral part of my life, I would wake up in the morning and the first thing I'll check is my notifications, friend request and messages, and as  Facebook slowly changes over time so do us. 

When I stepped into 9th grade things have changed a lot, back in the 8th grade we were just using Facebook to troll each other. I would create another facebook account using a feminine name and post an image of a beautiful woman from the web as a profile picture just to seduce my friends, that's how we make fun of each other. Back then our newsfeeds were full of nothing but gift requests, posts about games, and random cheeky pictures with awkward captions like "good morning world", "woke up like this", "how are you world he he he". Then here comes a huge change— from a platform where we are open online for fun, it has suddenly become an enhanced version of Are you Hot or Not, having a grandiose profile picture suddenly became a thing, everybody was trying to obtain hundreds of likes. My friends no longer talks about our individual conversations with random people we met on Facebook. Instead, they talk about how many likes they got on their profiles and often brags about it. 

This social media channel suddenly became  a place to create a fake self-image, a place used to please people's ego and a melting pot for individuals desperately seeking for attention. People started to develop some sort of Obsession with showing off their lives on social media just to let the whole world know that they live a perfect, happy life. People started to race four likes, it has become an obsession so dire that most of my peers even started sending direct messages to random people in facebook asking them to like their profile pictures. 

Everybody suddenly wanted to show notoriety, some even measure their self acceptance base on the likes that they get. Little by little we started to forget how to plant in Farmville for most of us became busy creating our own identities in social media. It has become an open a repository of pictures, memories and captions that has no original purpose but to tell other people "what we do", "what we have" and "where we are"; in simpler terms we were basically posting not to inform but to rather show off. I witnessed the rise of "fanpages", "fangroups" and watched as new trends were added to the popular culture. Facebook became wider than ever adding new fancy features that drove everyone mad. Like a typical bandwagon teenager back then I bid farewell to my Mr. Bean profile pic and followed the tide.

My teacher once said that what we do and say reflects our personality, which oftentimes is so true. That's the sole reason why people usually judge as by how they see us. Back in the old days, people judge you by how they personally see you, or base upon things that they have heard about you, now, people can mirror your personality base on your Facebook posts, It serves as a tiny hole that lets people peek through your personality using your post, shares and likes. From a mere messaging app it has become an extension of yourself, As you make sure that you are physically presentable, you subconsciously also assure that your profile looks as good as you are in person. But that's always not the case, because sometimes individuals make a good impression through their profiles but they are awful in reality. 

Nowadays people can determine your interest by what you post and share. For example in the "fanboy/fangirl" context I could determine that you are a BTS fan just by looking at your share post that glorifies the K-pop band, while I can also conclude that you hate Blackpink if you posted demeaning words against that girl group, yet that's not always the case because some people might conclude that you're a lazy person for wasting your time on such things (Also why waste your time on this things?). Our Facebook accounts acts in the same way as our personal self, in physical context— we could leave a good or a bad impression base on how we act and so is in the virtual context— people could also develop a mixed impression based on what they read on your Facebook wall.

Facebook played a larger role in my life that I could ever imagine When I stepped into Senior High School and College, there I met my one true love. I utilized this platform to gain her sweet "yes". All of my business transactions, academic queries and even the submission of my requirements all took place in Facebook— even my information regarding social issues came from Facebook. I didn't have any spare time to watch TV so Facebook provides all those news for me. Hundreds of articles about different topics are scattered all over Facebook, it has become a platform that shapes public opinion, sometimes more efficient than any national TV. 

During my 11th grade conspiracy theories were very widespread, everybody loves to read conspiracies, even my professors— I would hear most of my classmates talking about the Illuminati, The New World Order , Agartha, Nazis in the moon and other nonsense stuffs. Maybe they though believing on such fuckery will make them sound intelligent. News and Features authored by unknown writers plague my newsfeeds, some where so meticulously written which questions my thought of them being original or not, those informations were so contagious that I almost fell for it. The growing numbers of individuals who believed in conspiracies is alarming, Fake news is so widespread and unfortunately most of my friends believes what they  read on Facebook. 

Facebook become a haven of fabricated stories posing as serious journalism, who have thought that this would happen, nobody did foretold this. The rise of Fake News and misinformation together with inaccurate beliefs that random users propagated on Facebook is a huge issue during this internet age, it represents the people's high-level of stupidity and it poses a threat to our democracy. Every year as Facebook progress more and more issues and problems are made. But even though this platform has become a place of lies and haven for insecurities Facebook still plays an important part for the development of the masses.

Have you ever noticed How vocal the people are today? When I first started using Facebook I never saw a single post influenced by any political thought. What we do then was to share funny GIF's and images and yet now after a few years later everybody have their own opinion, I believe not a single soul in Facebook hasn't tried to put their own opinions online especially those politically influenced ones. Everybody now supports a bloc, we are currently divided into several political factions. Facebook truly has became a rallying point for progressive voices, a platform where we exercise our right to speak. The comment sections has turned into places of discussion where people began to talk and convey their opinions. I started to understand the concepts of democracy, the meaning of equality through Facebook, I encountered the words capitalism, revolution, and social justice there. 

Through Facebook we started to care about our country, we started to create our own stand, we started questioning ourselves about what do we really believe in. Facebook is no longer a site where we only talk about our personal issues, it has become a place where we liberate ourselves from the shackles of neutrality and insociance, from a mere messaging app it has evolved into a platform that forces as not only to express ourselves but also to push our views and upheld our rights, As Abigail Joy Lee said, "The internet [Facebook] became our own Mendiolas". 

Great isn't it?, To witness Facebook's drastic changes over the years. To watch people be affected by it, to see how this social media application influence them. Long ago we just talked about ourselves in Facebook, but now we discussed theories and concepts. Long ago we just connect with people around us but now we connect with the world. Once upon a time Facebook was just an "app", now it has become part of us— it has turned as our diary, our photo book and our stage.

I turned off my phone and saw a reflection of myself from the screen, I examined every pores and line on my seemingly aging face— stared long enough at my enlarged eyebags ,my dark acne marks and my long beard, all are signs of aging— of the face that reflects all my experiences. 

 I turned on the phone, "What's on your mind?".

I typed a few words and clicked post, I waited as once again I show my true colors to the world.

"Posted!!", "John Walter Mendoza reacted wow on your post."