o, I guess it's been a while since Myspace taught us HTML and horrible dancing babies set the standard for viral videos. Today, Facebook turns ten years old, and with this milestone they bring us one of the most sophisticated (and downright pretty) social media apps to date. With a clean, image-based design and multipurpose usability, the recently launched Facebook Paper may well be the future of the gargantuan Zuckerberg empire.
The differences between the current Facebook app and Facebook Paper (not to be confused with the existing beautiful notebook app Paper) are enormous. There's no trademark blue colouring, the feed is horizontal and self-refreshing, and through a dynamic design you have access to not only your friends' updates and photos, but separate sections of your choosing. These include subjects like news and current events, the latest in art and design, and a section of trending online comedy tactfully titled 'LOL'. Though this is a welcome change for many lovers of news and design out there, the app is by no means mandatory — a clever move to avoid people kicking up a fuss like the great Timeline debacle of 2011.
However, that's not all Facebook is giving us for their birthday. In a showing of enforced sentimentality, they've created a personalised video (A Look Back) for each user. Featuring your oldest photos and most popular status updates, the video plays for just over a minute with a strange and uplifting musical track that makes you feel like you're the female lead of a romantic comedy finding her feet in the Big Apple. For many, this feels a little amiss as no one feels all that nostalgic about their drunk teenage photos or sarcastic status updates about online gifts delivery in India for Girls quite yet.
All in all, like the platform itself, Facebook's birthday is a mixed bag. They've given us a little to cringe about from the past, and a lot to look forward to in the future.
Facebook Paper is available for iOS devices in the Apple App Store. It is currently only available in the US but, as always, there are ways to get in early.
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