Nobody likes change. Not really. In the 14 years since Facebook first launched, though, our lives have been full of enforced changes. As well as bringing us all closer together while simultaneously pulling us apart, Facey-B has done more than just fill our lives with meme-sharing joy, it's presented plenty of low points and moments of outrage too – in fact, every single time a minor update was introduced.
Over the past decade Facebook has changed time and again, adding new features and radical redesigns. Every time we stamped our feet and threw full-on toddler tantrums, then quickly forgot what we were outraged about in the first place, because, hey, change isn't all that bad. Well, unless it's sprung on you like this lot.
1. Hitting the wall with the arrival of the News Feed
'What do you mean I'm no longer the centre of attention? Isn't that what Facebook's all about?' When Facebook ditched the wall and introduced the original News Feed back in 2006, it put our online friends' actions ahead of our own as the primary focus. There was uproar, there was anger - there was a seismic shift in social interactions that remains to this day. Now we couldn't imagine living without it.
2. No more third-person chatter
In the early days of Facebook it was all "Jeff is...", "Alice is...", "Digital Spy is...". We were a world of douches who could only refer to ourselves in the third person. When this changed, the first-person freedom was too much for many to handle. Well, initially. Now we'd point the finger at anyone who talks about themselves like an Apprentice candidate. Luke is... happy about this.
3. More photos, less filler, continued moaning
'What is this well-designed, heavily-stylised nonsense? What happened to our dense, text-heavy, Facebook profile of old?' A classic case of hating change simply because it's new and different, 2010's far superior profile update caused the usual outrage without anyone really knowing what it was they were hating on. The dawn of a picture-heavy service was upon us and we never looked back. Well, after that initial 48 hours of angst, anyway.
4. Timeline takeover brings back past embarrassments
Arguably the biggest change in Facebook's 12 years, the Timeline caused its fair amount of day one hatred before quickly settling into a case of 'what, there was something before this?' forgetfulness. It resurrected your entire history of social sharing (wait, they were storing that), and brought your entire Facebook existence into a more accessible form.
A survey shortly after the switchover showed that 91% of teens wanted the changes reversed. Within a couple of weeks though, no-one could remember what the old site even looked like.
5. Facebook usernames – the forgotten annoyance
Inspired by Twitter, Facebook added usernames back in 2009. Surely there's nothing to dislike about stylised usernames though, right? Well, with a lack of warning, the scrum to secure the desired handle of choice and not end up a 'JonnyJones462' caused much frustration. Now, who even cares what your Facebook username is? All that fuss over a feature that flopped.
6. Killing time in totally the wrong order
Surely showing content in a time-sensitive fashion is the way the social world works, right? It's done Twitter no harm. Facebook scrapped the chronological order and started spitting content at us in seemingly random fashion a couple of years ago. Now we take it for standard, but for a while it was more hated than a Piers Morgan marathon on ITV 2.
7. Every privacy tweak ever
Every time Facebook updates its privacy policy the same thing happens - we get on our high horse, complain about our personal security, get outraged at the power this tech behemoth wields and pledge to turn our backs on it in protest. Sadly, this is always followed by the same goldfish-style memory lapses and continued addiction to the social giant.
8. Messenger packs its bag and goes it alone
Most of Facebook's changes are forgotten about within days of being introduced. This one still grates a little though – why can't we have Facebook Messenger within the actual Facebook app? Sure, Mark Zuckerberg's claims of it improving the base Facebook service are justified, but that extra button click and brief app-load time is an ongoing irritant.
