Remember the days before there was Facebook? We don’t either. The social network is so ingrained in our lives that it’s the first thing we check on our phone every morning. The Internet? For many, Facebook is the Internet. But there was a time when we didn’t post a gazillion photos, liked every brain fart our friends posted (even though we didn’t actually like them), revealed TMI, or had 3.5 degrees of separation from each other.
On the February 2 episode of the Comedy Central improv show, @midnight, during a segment called #HashtagWars, the guests played a round of #BeforeFacebookI to mark Facebook’s 12th birthday. Before Facebook, comedian/actress Mamrie Hart “begged her friends to come to her show via real mail” and “crushed actual candy and had a diabetic scare,” comedian Liza Treyger “would have never known that Stacey Dash’s opinions mattered,” and actor Dominic Monaghan “didn’t have to see so many ugly baby pictures and liked them.”
The hashtag inspired others to share their #BeforeFacebookI memories on Facebook as well as Twitter, although some took on a more serious tone. Here’s a look at some of our favorite trending tweets.
https://twitter.com/musicMagpie/status/694852791534223360
Before Twitter, instagram and Facebook #BeforeFacebookI pic.twitter.com/1gUixOAmpG
— Funny Tweets (@FunnyThingsUK) February 3, 2016
#BeforeFacebookI would have to phone 538 people and let them know what I had for lunch. https://t.co/npv1z80491 pic.twitter.com/APwxvIvMBv
— Kabir Iyengar (@kabiriyengar) February 3, 2016
#BeforeFacebookI had to stalk my exes with binoculars and camouflage gear. pic.twitter.com/kpGaZUrEiN
— Ally Hirschlag (@AllyHirschlag) February 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/OnlyYoda/status/694770655787663361
#BeforeFacebookI thought *this* was a poke @midnight #Polk pic.twitter.com/TylEDn9cP2
— Lance Gould (@lancegould) February 3, 2016
#BeforeFacebookI didn't "LIKE" things like funerals and divorces. @midnight
— ʞɔiwbɿɒH ꙅiɿʜƆ (@hardwick) February 3, 2016
You just opened X and started typing your thoughts. Imagine the jump scare when a hand suddenly pops up on your screen, pointing at the promote button. It doesn’t say a word and simply points. For a growing number of X users, this isn’t a made-up scenario but something they have been seeing since yesterday, and very few of them are amused.
Most of us have learned to tune out the usual in-app upsells, whether it’s a glowing upgrade banner or a pop-up about a premium plan. A floating hand hovering over your draft is much harder to ignore, and that’s probably the whole point.
Scroll through any app for five minutes, and you’ll find someone maxxing something. Their skin, their sleep, their protein intake, even their Friday night on the couch. That little suffix has been everywhere this year, and now it has a trophy to show for it. In a recent announcement, Dictionary.com named maxxing its 2026 Word of the Year.
What are people actually doing when they’re maxxing?
Instagram is testing a new format for long-form videos called Features. It allows select creators to upload horizontal videos running up to 90 minutes long. Instagram has already tested the new format with creators in Brazil, and now, it's expanding to tens of thousands of creators across the US.
How will Instagram's new Features format work?