Written by: Taylor Duff | Staff Writer

On Feb. 4, our beloved Facebook will turn 20 years old — you heard that right, 20. Facebook began as a small website where college students could interact with others and give their friends some simple status updates

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg created the network in 2004 to give Harvard students a place to connect. By 2005, Facebook.com became an official place for people to connect and be that profile for people to click on. In 2006, Facebook expanded from schools, such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford, to the rest of the non-academic world, which made the users skyrocket to double from the previous year. 

It quickly grew successful as thousands of people began to join the site. Facebook originally was going to be called Facemash, but because of some complications, Facebook was deemed the better fit. 20 years later, it is now among the most successful social media sites, let alone a media network, in the world. 

Facebook went through a rebrand in October of 2021 and now is referred to as Meta or the Metaverse, which also includes Instagram, X, formally known as Twitter, and Linkedin, generating billions of users daily in the United States alone. 

People carry Facebook with them every day, making it easy to check on one’s status and like posts. Now, it’s worth mentioning that Facebook didn’t reach success without a touch of controversy. One memorable controversial instance was the lawsuits between Zuckerberg, the Winklevoss twins and Paul Ceglia. 

The Winklevoss twins claimed that Zuckerberg was supposed to aid in their creation of a social media site and instead used the code and information for Facebook. Paul Cegila, on the other hand, invested in Facebook when Zuckerberg was getting the plans in order and Paul didn’t receive his shares, leading to his lawsuit. 

This controversy was so large, that a film was made out of it, “The Social Network.” An agreement was made on these lawsuits: the twins received a 65 million dollar settlement and Paul agreed to continue receiving shares so it’s unsure how much was paid but based on Facebook’s revenue, it’s a large sum.  
Despite the challenges Facebook has endured, that hasn’t stopped the site from becoming a revolutionary piece of social media history. Many people visit Facebook every day, liking, committing, watching clips and even selling their items on the website marketplace. Facebook is a part of our lives and carries our history along with the 20 years it’s been around. 

Happy Birthday, Facebook.    

Contact the author at: tduff23@mail.wou.edu