Perhaps on February 4, 2004 AD – the day Facebook was born – few people thought this university project would one day cross all borders of the world. This project was created by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends (Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes) at Harvard University; a project that introduced a new type of social network and its initial goal was to connect students and professors at the same university. Later on, Stanford University and other universities joined this social network and over time, it became accessible to everyone. At the time of writing this article, Facebook has over one billion members and now it can be called not just a social network, but a social community; a community that in a way encompasses all the positive and negative aspects of a physical community. Just like in a real community, there are honest and dishonest people, and sometimes even multiple-faced individuals, and Facebook is no exception to this. According to Facebook’s own

If we look at this event from a psychological perspective, humans are always faced with a phenomenon that I call “the dreamer” in their minds. This “dreamer” is a character that they wanted or at least had an interest in becoming. Perhaps in the past – when there were no social networks or even the internet – this “dreamer” only existed in dreams and fantasies or, at most, ended with a few lies and exaggerations in the company of strangers or fellow travelers during a trip. But with the advent of the internet (for the general public) and social networks, this “dreamer” entered the virtual space and sometimes multiplied at a faster pace than a contagious virus. People behind this mask of fantasy and invisibility became psychologists, writers, readers, artists, mystics, philosophers, and fortune-tellers, and sometimes they immersed themselves so deeply in these roles that it became believable even for themselves. Perhaps one of the reasons for humans’ separation from old-fashioned com

Iran was not deprived of the benefits and drawbacks of this social network. I remember well that in the early days of the emergence of this social network in Iran, the situation and even the way it was used was slightly different from today. In the closed cultural and moral atmosphere of those days, where law enforcement forces and groups promoting good and preventing evil (under various names) hindered free socializing and getting to know the opposite sex under any excuse and by any means, Facebook had become a means of meeting and chatting with the opposite sex in comments and even more freely in the complementary Messenger program, which worked with a Facebook account. Of course, we should not forget that cultural pages also included critiques of poetry and film, book reading, discussions on not-so-political topics, introducing new cultural and artistic works, and many other good things were happening alongside the aforementioned uses. Facebook had become one of the strongest competitors of blogs, and perhaps the ease of creating posts and the new shine and color it

Studies in England show that during the years of Facebook’s popularity, an average of one-fifth to one-third of divorces were directly or indirectly related to Facebook, and of course the name of Facebook was mentioned as one of the reasons for dissatisfaction in divorce proceedings. This shows the power (positive/negative) of this social network to influence a physical society.

Regarding negative opinions about this social network, we can refer to the views of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who says: “Facebook is the most hated spy tool ever created. Anyone who adds their friends’ names and information to the Facebook social network should know that they are serving the US intelligence agencies for free and completing this information treasure for them.” This may be the most pessimistic view that can be presented about Facebook, which of course is not confirmed or rejected in the competence of this article and we can only pay special attention to it as the expert opinion of an information expert. Of course, Facebook itself also announced in a report published in 2013 that it provided its users’ information to various governments upon their request. The report states that in the first half of 2013, various governments requested access to the information of more than 38,000 users of this social network, of which 80% of the requests were fulfilled. More than 74 countries around the world

These days, with the passing of twenty years since the establishment of Facebook and of course with the emergence of dozens of other popular social networks, it can be said that at least in Iran, Facebook no longer holds the position it had in its first decade and has relinquished that position to networks such as Instagram.

The world in front of us is a world with an open window to future generations of social networks. The artificial intelligence that has recently gained immense freshness and attractiveness reminds me greatly of the early days of Facebook’s birth.