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"Facebook is celebrating its 10th birthday today! So, happy birthday social media platform I wouldn&amp;#x27;t have expected (at the time) to win over billions of users and upend the way people around the world connect! Sorry it didn&amp;#x27;t last for us, MySpace. In the past 10 years, pretty much everyone, including our grandparents, has joined the time-sucking, Like-addicting site. Let&amp;#x27;s take a brief moment to review just a few of the ways it has totally changed our lives. High School Reunions Don&amp;#x27;t Matter as Much For a lot of our parents, high school reunions&amp;amp;#8212;especially the big ones like 10, 15, and 20 years&amp;amp;#8212;were a really big deal that required a lot of coordination. Tracking people down wasn&amp;#x27;t as easy. Even with the Web, it wasn&amp;#x27;t easy to get someone&amp;#x27;s email address, and very few people used pay services like Classmates.com. Now, you just create a group, invite everyone you know, they invite everyone they know, and it&amp;#x27;s done. But even if planning is easier, fewer people are going to reunions, according to alumni organizers. Who wants to spend money to see people you don&amp;#x27;t really know anymore if you can see their wedding photos on Facebook? Networking Got a Lot Easier My number one rule regarding Facebook is I never post anything I wouldn&amp;#x27;t be proud to show my grandmom or my boss, and my wall is locked so that others can&amp;#x27;t post. While LinkedIn is a fantastic resource for connecting with recruiters, Facebook can be a great way to make a quick personal connection. A quick search can turn up that your college roommate&amp;#x27;s boyfriend works at a company you&amp;#x27;re interested in. It&amp;#x27;s so easy to reach out and ask for a quick coffee meeting or an email address. Breakups Got a Lot Weirder How many of us have changed our relationship status after a breakup at three in the morning, and then quickly deleted it from our timeline? Watched in horror as someone changed her status, got tons of replies, and it turned into a back-and-forth with her ex? The downside of the relationship status updates is everyone knows your business, and some people feel inclined to comment. On the other hand, you no longer have to share the details with acquaintances three months after the breakup because they already know all about it. Addicted to Likes A relationship status change can get hundreds of Likes. The same is true for a job change, promotion, or posting a photo of your new kitten. Those Likes feel really good, don&amp;#x27;t they? Are you hooked? Likes are affirmations of your life choices, but if you find yourself checking to see how many Likes a photo of your dinner gets, you&amp;#x27;re a Like addict. Don&amp;#x27;t worry, we&amp;#x27;ve all been there&amp;amp;#8212;just stop and ask yourself if doing your laundry is worth a billboard notice to your 500+ friends next time. We (Mostly) Know What Everyone Looks Like Before going on a date, job interview, or even to meet someone for a coffee catch-up, I check his or her Facebook page to get an idea of what he looks like and maybe some clue to his interests and personality. For interviews and dates, it&amp;#x27;s just smart to do a little homework so you don&amp;#x27;t approach the wrong person! Of course, if his profile pic is a dog or a baby, no luck&amp;amp;#8212;please, stop doing this! And if I&amp;#x27;m meeting someone I&amp;#x27;m actually connected to on Facebook but maybe not super close with, I&amp;#x27;ll check in to see what she&amp;#x27;s been up to&amp;amp;#8212;mostly to prevent a faux pas like asking about a boyfriend she dumped months ago. We Are Family! I live thousands of miles from most of my family, and I love logging on to Facebook and seeing what everyone is up to. Yes, I love baby photos, job updates, and seeing what everyone is planning next. If you have a family member you don&amp;#x27;t get along with, this can be difficult, but with the newest tools on Facebook, you can unfollow them and adjust your preferences so they don&amp;#x27;t see and comment on your posts. You have my permission to do this! And now, I have to go...check my Facebook. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/inspired/blogs/the-conversation/2014/02/happy-birthday-facebook-the-to>