Blog: Facebook - My Own Personal Time Machine

At the beginning of a new year, as many people look forward to the future, I find myself drawn to the past. In fact, I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of traveling back in time.

I never tire of watching old movies such as Back to the Future, Somewhere in Time, or Frequency, and wonder if time travel could really be possible.

Stephen Hawking once said, “All you need to build a time machine is a wormhole, the large Hadron Collider, or a rocket that goes really, really fast."

I’m beginning to think that I already have a time machine – it’s called Facebook.

A chance interaction with an old acquaintance from my Junior High School days helped me realize that Facebook can propel me back in time in the blink of an eye, with just a click of the mouse. 

When Facebook was founded in 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, it was intended to be a social network for college students. The name, Facebook, is actually derived from a printed online directory, which college administrators use to help students get better acquainted with one another.

Although originally targeted at the younger generation, I believe it is the baby boomers that benefit the most from Facebook’s time travel capabilities.

Those of the internet generation haven’t lived long enough to have developed a history that predates television, cell phones, or the computer. They will never understand the feeling of utter amazement, seeing a childhood friend from 40 years earlier, slowly materialize on the computer screen before them.

When I go on Facebook and discover that I’ve been contacted by an old friend that I haven’t heard from since grade school, I’m suddenly transported from my computer desk, to my school desk; as my mind begins racing with memories of sock hops, slumber parties and my first crush.

I went through a Facebook time portal just last week, when I noticed an old friend’s profile picture emerge on a Facebook page from my hometown. I last saw her in 1968, at our eighth grade graduation. 

I recognized her name right away, but the photograph before me was not of the dark haired girl in bobby socks that I remembered. How did our freckles turn to wrinkles so quickly? A secret Facebook portal can be the only logical explanation for 43 years passing in a heartbeat.

When Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook he thought it would help those of the net generation get to know each other better. Little did he realize the impact it would have on his grandparent’s generation. 

Luckily, I don’t need a wormhole, a tricked-out DeLorean, or a rocket that goes really, really fast, to travel back in time. Thanks to Facebook, I can reconnect with the past, without ever leaving the comfort of the present.