8 Things We Miss About
the Glory Days of Social Media
By Abu Poblete and Kevin Christian L.Santos

Social media is a lot of things to a lot of different people. It provides us with life necessities like free movies, hilarious memes, news updates, trolling randoms and, of course, stalking our exes. From its first iterations to how we currently enjoy it, social media has come a long way.

Facebook is king. Instagram can now record video views and will be able to host minute-long videos soon. Face-swapping is now a thing. Let’s all step into our respective Deloreans and hold on to a steady internet connection (if that’s even possible in the Philippines) as we take a trip back to a simpler time. From Friendster to Facebook, here are a few things we miss from social media’s glory days.

8. Giving and receiving testimonials on Friendster

“Koya, pahingi ng testi.” Nothing reaffirms your value and makes you feel as good as a testimonial from a friend. There’s also the unspoken rule that once you receive a testimonial, you’re obliged to give one in return. Don’t be a jerk. Besides, you’ll feel good about it after. Just don’t give a lame one full of acronyms.

7. Fixing your top 8 on MySpace

Speaking of reaffirming value and self-worth, being included in a friend’s Top 8 felt awesome. You took time out and meticulously ranked yours, too, because nothing could alienate friends like excluding them out of your Top 8. “So-and-so is in the top five and I’m not. Who the hell does she think she is?” You knew who your real friends were when they ranked you according to importance. Harsh.

Sidenote: what also made MySpace cool was that you had a friend once you joined. Tom welcomed you with his sincere smile. However, Tom could also be a savage and refused to take anyone’s shit:

6. Making a MySpace playlist for your profile was an art form

You had the perfect playlist for your profile. You scoured the internet for hot tracks and there were times that you had to endure a painfully long wait before your song on Limewire was completely downloaded. You’d also make awesome music discoveries on the profiles of other people. Making your playlist was an art form, and you wanted to tell people how deep and profound you were as a human being or how “core” and “scene” you were. You also met other people through these playlists. It was awesome.

5. Fine tuning your Friendster account

Friendster also allowed us to let our freak flag fly. We let people know how unique and special little flowers we were by customizing the hell out of our profiles. Customized background? Check. Seizure-inducing text? Check. We also put a lot of stuff in our favorites, from music, movies, books and more. We wore our hearts on our sleeve (and profile) and we were proud of it.

And who else misses Friendster’s feature that allowed you to check who recently viewed your profile? Stalking really was hard back then, but it was also a great gauge to see for who was interested.

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