Happy 10th Birthday Facebook!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FACEBOOK!   Today is the 10th birthday of the creation of Facebook.  It's amazing how much we use social media every day of our lives.  Here are some of the ways that Facebook has changed our lives:

1. Friend--Until Facebook came along, nobody used the word "friend" as a verb. Now it's not uncommon to ask a new acquaintance to spell their name so you can friend them on Facebook.

2. Unfriend--By adding an "unfriend" option, Facebook created new shorthand for aborting a friendship or an acquaintance. It's a lot easier to say, "I unfriended Bob" than "I'm not going to be friends with Bob anymore because he annoys me with his daily musings about his toenails." Unfriending someone is considered a more drastic step than tweaking your Facebook settings to block or minimize their posts. The term was officially welcomed by the New Oxford English Dictionary, which named "unfriend" its Word of the Year for 2009.

3. Status update--Years ago, "status" was a measure of someone's social or professional standing. Then Facebook began asking users to post updates on their thoughts or activities, and "updating your status" suddenly meant more than just moving to a better neighborhood.

4. Like--Few things have sparked more debate on Facebook than the "Like" button, which debuted in 2009. Suddenly, with a quick click you could endorse your friends' updates, jokes and cute-kid pictures. All this made "Like" a noun as well as a verb, as users began collecting Likes as a measure of engagement and popularity.

5. Poke--The weird Poke feature was sort of a thing in Facebook's early days. Nobody knew what it was for. Some saw it as a flirty invitation to an online chat or real-world hookup. But the sexual innuendo made it awkward to use in conversation.

6. Share (and overshare)--Sharing used to be something we did in school when there weren't enough textbooks to go around. Then came Facebook, and everyone became sharers. Or over-sharers. Soon it wasn't enough to just experience a memorable moment in our daily lives: We had to share it with everyone, RIGHT NOW!

7. Wall--For years, Facebook encouraged visitors to a friend's profile to "write on their Wall." The idea of a digital "wall" seemed odd at a time when other social networks were promoting pages. Maybe that's why it never really caught on. In 2011, Facebook replaced the Wall with the current Timeline format.

8. It's complicated--This answer to Facebook's "What's your relationship status?" could apply to almost any romantic entanglement between "single" and "married" and is more interesting than either. It's become a common response to the "How's your love life?" question and even inspired a 2009 movie with Meryl Streep.

9. Tag--What was once just a child's game is now a way to get people to notice your posts or to embarrass them by flagging them in photos. (The Rooster)