When Facebook Was Hack-Proof

There are probably very few people old enough to remember the days when Facebook could not be hacked. It’s not that people didn’t try. It’s that the success rate was extraordinarily low. In the early days, Facebook was non-digital.

In the pre-digital age, if you wanted to Face Book (yes, Virginia, it was once a verb composed of two words, but it could also be a two-word unhyphenated noun), you needed to be adept at using scissors, scotch tape, calligraphy pens, and a Kodak Brownie camera. Following strict guidelines on how the elements should be laid out on your Face Book page, it could take several weekends or more to get everything just right.

To share your page, you sandwiched the page between two pieces of cardboard, placed it in a large envelope, and sent it through the mail. Of course, others were doing the same, so while you might be enjoying someone else’s Face Book page, someone was admiring your page.

I acquired an original Face Book page at a local garage sale. To be more precise, I purchased a stack of old Look magazines. Those are large format magazines, 11" x 14", so it’s not surprising that no one noticed that, slipped inside one of the issues, was someone’s Face Book page.

Compared to our digital version, the shortcomings of the pre-digital version are obvious. You were limited in the number of accomplishments (one) and friends (three) you could list. There was no space for listing anything else, such as favorite books or movies. Sharing, of course, was dependent on the speed of what we now derisively call “snail mail.”

Despite these shortcomings, and the strict rules of element placement, the individual was free to choose inks, penmanship styles, length of commentary, artistic flourishes, and so on. Most importantly, the combination of a return address and postmark made it close to impossible to hack.