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Before TikTok videos, Instagram stories and WhatsApp messages filled our phones, there was Facebook. For a whole generation of Cameroonians, the platform was the first real taste of social media, and it changed how people stayed in touch, shared their daily lives and got themselves noticed. From cybercafés to smartphones, from the first friend requests to community groups, Facebook evolved alongside its users. More than a social network, it became for many a digital witness to an era, one whose memories are still vivid.
Logging on to Facebook was already an adventure 💻
For those who joined Facebook in the early 2010s, the memory is often tied to the cybercafé: the internet shops, known locally as “cybers”, where getting online cost money. The internet wasn’t yet in everyone’s pocket. Connecting could mean setting aside a budget, hunting for a cyber nearby and sitting at a computer for a few dozen minutes. Once you were in, there was plenty to do: check your inbox, scan new posts, browse friends’ photos and, above all, find out whether any friend requests were waiting.
Back then, opening Facebook felt different. You never quite knew what you would find in your feed, and every notification seemed to matter. A new friend request could come from a former classmate, a relative living abroad, or someone you had met a few days earlier. For many people, the network was above all a way to reconnect with ties that distance had slowly loosened.
“When I went to the cybercafé, the first thing I did was check Facebook. I wanted to see the new photos, read the comments and find out who had sent me a friend request. It sounds ordinary today, but back then it was really something,” recalls Alfred Manga, a user from that generation.
Photos were already telling the story of our lives 📸
Facebook also changed how Cameroonians kept and shared their memories. A photo from a birthday, a ceremony, a night out or a trip no longer stayed in a family album. It could be posted and commented on by dozens of people.
Choosing a profile picture mattered too. Some people spent time picking the one that represented them best, while others swapped their image regularly to show off a new outfit, a new hairstyle or just a new mood. Comments often piled up under these posts and could grow into long conversations between friends.
“When I look at some of my old photos today, I sometimes wonder why I picked that profile picture. But it also reminds me of a period of my life I had almost forgotten, and above all of a time when we were gradually getting immersed in social media,” says Agathe Mbani, a former user.
These digital archives have taken on a special value. An old post can now bring back a face, a relationship or an event that belongs to the past. Facebook has, sometimes almost in spite of itself, become a kind of family album you can open on a screen.
From pokes to long comment threadss 💬
Early Facebook had its own codes. The “poke” was part of them: a classic feature that let you send a friend a virtual nudge or a friendly tap. It could simply be a way to tease someone or grab their attention, but it could also mean something else, depending on who sent it.
Comments mattered just as much. A post could spark a discussion that ran for hours, with replies, jokes and exchanges between people who sometimes only knew each other online. The pace was different from today’s social networks, where content scrolls by fast and can vanish from your attention seconds after it appears.
For some Cameroonians, that period is remembered as a more spontaneous way of using the network. People posted because they felt like sharing something, without necessarily thinking about how far a post would travel, or about the recommendation systems that now decide much of what we see.
Then Facebook moved into our phones 📱
The gradual arrival of smartphones and better mobile internet changed that relationship profoundly. Facebook was no longer just a site you visited from a computer. It became reachable at any moment from your phone.
That also changed how often people logged on. You no longer had to wait until you were in a cybercafé to check your account. A notification could be read from home, in a taxi, at work or during a break. The social network slowly became a constant presence.
For Cameroonian users, this shift went hand in hand with a wider change in digital habits. For many, the phone became the main tool for communicating, following the news, posting photos and getting onto social media. Facebook stopped being only a place to reconnect and also became a space for expression, information and commerce.
“I have to admit a Facebook notification doesn’t have the same effect anymore. A friend request doesn’t spark the same curiosity, and a new post can quickly disappear in the flood of content. That wasn’t the case before. You get lost in the stream. Luckily, all it takes is an old photo popping up through the memories feature for a whole chunk of that era to resurface,” says Charle Mba, a devoted user of the platform.
It was never just about friends 👥
As pages and groups developed, the platform changed in scale. People no longer came only to follow their loved ones. Media outlets built audiences there, associations created communities, and entrepreneurs found a way to present their products and services.
In Cameroon, Facebook groups opened new spaces for discussion around a wide range of interests. For some users, Facebook became as important a professional tool as a personal one.
“At first, I only logged on to chat with my friends. Today, Facebook is mostly how I follow the news and see what certain businesses are offering,” explains Alane Habib, a user.
That shift shows how far the platform has adapted to its users’ needs. The Facebook of the early days is no longer quite the one people use today.
A platform that grew up with its users 🌐
Over the years, Facebook added new features, including reactions, live video and Marketplace, its buy-and-sell space. It also had to contend with newer platforms that pulled away part of its audience, notably Instagram, Snapchat and then TikTok.
“Habits have changed. Younger users are turning more to short videos and personalized content. Even so, Facebook still holds an important place for many communities, families, businesses and organizations,” says Linda Nga, a user from that era.
That change shows up in how early users relate to the platform today. Those who discovered Facebook in the cybercafé era now often have a very different relationship with it. Some post far less than before. Others use it mostly to follow groups or pages. Others still go back mainly when an old photo or memory is surfaced for them.
Memories that show up unannouncedr 🕰️
It may be one of the most striking things about Facebook’s evolution. While the platform now fights for attention with videos, recommendations and personalized content, it also holds an immense memory of its users.
An old photo can reappear years after it was posted, and an old post can bring back a professional chapter, a friendship or a relationship that has since changed. For some, these memories carry special value because they show how far they have come.
“Sometimes I look back at my old posts and wonder how I could have written certain things. But it also makes me smile, because I recognize the person I was back then,” says Bilwid Mfegue, a user.
Facebook then becomes more than a communication space. It is a personal archive where anyone can find fragments of their own digital history.
From discovery to nostalgia 🥹
Since it entered Cameroonians’ daily lives, Facebook has tracked the shift in their digital habits. Users moved from occasional cybercafé sessions to an almost permanent connection on a smartphone. Friend requests made room for groups, pages, videos and professional uses. Long discussions in the comments were joined by faster, more visual formats.
But behind these technical changes, a collective memory remains: that of a time when the internet was taking on a new place in everyday life, and when Facebook meant, for many, the discovery of a digital world that was still largely unknown.
Facebook has changed, habits have changed and its users have grown up. Yet in its digital archives, the traces of a generation still sleep: people who realized that with a few clicks they could find an old classmate, show a photo to the whole world or simply say “I’m here.” Users don’t necessarily miss the old Facebook. They miss the stretch of their lives that the network recorded.
Your memories count!
Do you remember your first days on Facebook in Cameroon? Which memory from that time still comes back to you today? 🤔
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