I swear it’s true! Facebook used to be fun.

What does that have to do with these two separate paintings? I’ll get to that. But first, please believe me when I tell you…Facebook really did used to be fun.

I was just moving from Hawaii to Arizona when people first started buzzing about MySpace and Facebook. At the time, I wasn’t very interested. Texting was just becoming popular, but I still had a flip phone. The kind where you had to press a button three times to get a single letter. The first iPhone had just come out, and I remember being shocked when a friend flew all the way to Oahu (we lived on Kauai) just to stand in line and spend six hundred dollars on this new thing called the iPhone. Six hundred dollars for a phone?! It sounded insane then. (Now it would be a steal.)

Once I settled in Arizona, though, I started to miss my friends. That’s when I grew interested in both MySpace and Facebook. Suddenly, I could keep in touch with people from Hawaii. Then college. Then came the real gold mine: I reconnected with friends from a little reform school I’d gone to in California called CEDU. The bonds we had from that school were deep, forged by years of strange and intense experiences. Finding those people online felt like striking gold.

Little by little, MySpace faded, and Facebook became the place where all these connections lived. I found friends from every part of my life…Hawaii, college, my old high school, even my elementary school in Kansas City. My past, right there in front of me, lighting up my screen.

After a breakup, I began living in Arizona alone. I leaned on Facebook even more. The people from CEDU had started a survivor group, and it felt like home. Finally being among people who understood what we had all been through. I felt surrounded by friendships and love.

I showcased my art on Facebook. I shared my feelings on Facebook. Back then, people responded. I felt heard, connected, less alone.

Facebook is so different now. Ads clog the feed, random groups I never joined pop up, and posts from actual friends are few and far between. These days, Facebook mostly makes me feel lonelier. But back then? It was magic.

One night during Facebook’s prime, I was frustrated with my art. After a couple of drinks, I posted something like: “I don’t know what to paint. Tell me what to paint and I’ll paint it. I just want to sell art.” Then I went to bed.

When I woke up, the comments were overflowing. Friends rallied around me. They commissioned me. It was wonderful. One of my CEDU friends commissioned a portrait of his sister’s baby. That’s who you see here.

He only asked for one portrait, but the postal service had other plans. I painted the first one in oils, shipped it to Hawaii two months before Christmas…and it disappeared. Panic set in. I quickly painted a second version in acrylics and rushed it out the door. That one arrived in time. Then, of course, the day before Christmas, the original finally showed up. In the end, his sister received not one but two portraits.

Those commissions, those connections, those conversations…they all happened because Facebook really did used to be amazing. It connected people. If I posted the same thing today, I’d probably get a couple of “hugs and prayers” comments, but nothing like the flood of love and support I got back then.

I’m glad I got to experience Facebook at its best, even though its downfall is really sad. I have to ask though, where did everyone go? If not Facebook, then where are you guys?

First painting: oil on canvas, 16”x20”

Second painting: acrylic on canvas, 16”x20”