How Facebook changed language: Words popularised by the site

As 20 years have passed since the founding of Facebook on February 4, 2004, it’s a fitting moment to reflect on the profound impact the social network has had on language and the ways we all interact socially.

The site itself has undergone various design changes and feature updates over the years, with the parent company rebranding to Meta in 2021 to signal a new focus on the idea of the Metaverse.

Widespread use of Facebook internationally over the past two decades has led to the invention of new words, as well as the popularisation of existing ones which gained additional meanings.

The word "Facebook" itself was included in the Collins English Dictionary in 2008, highlighting its widespread recognition. Today, Facebook is more synonymous with the social network than the original meaning of a "face book", referring to a yearbook-style directory in US colleges.

Language is always evolving and changing alongside society, so as social media has become an integral part of daily life for many, its influence can be felt in the ways we communicate both on and offline. Not all of these changes are positive—with hate speech online and the spreading of fake news on these platforms.

Some words birthed or reshaped by Facebook have travelled out of the digital realm and off the site itself, integrating into spoken language. For example, the act of "unfriending" someone,  meaning to disconnect from their updates, has become a common phrase in everyday conversations.

As we look back at these examples of words that came from or changed because of Facebook, it also opens the door to nostalgia about how the platform—and how we engage with it—has changed.

For example, how common it used to be to wish somebody a happy birthday by posting on their "wall", or how the simple "like" button used to be a blue thumbs up (now there is a whole range of different reaction options to demonstrate various emotions).

Noël Wolf, Cultural Expert & Babbel Live Teacher looks at words that have become popular or changed their meaning because of Facebook.

A way to label a person that appears in a photo or post on Facebook, similar to a nametag.

The action of being a "catfish" someone who pretends to be somebody you’re not to fool others. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the primary use of the word (the action of going fishing for catfish) dates back to 1838, whereas the newer definition linked to online activity dates back only to 2011.

Very old as a noun, but increasingly used as a verb thanks to social media, showing how language is being adapted for the digital world. It means to add someone to your group of friends on Facebook, which allows you to see updates on their life in the virtual world and exchange messages.

A Facebook "like" is a sort of social vote, approval and connection made with a page or piece of content on Facebook. Used as a verb and as a noun.

People may use the noun to refer to how many "likes" they received on a post, and so has become a metric for popularity of content online.

Following someone's activity and gathering information about them through their posts on Facebook (and other social media sites). Since Facebook had a person's biographical information and pictures readily available, “Facebook stalking” became a normalised phenomenon. People may "look up" others’ profiles before meeting them, for example, to form an initial impression.

Facebook is a visual platform, with the option to "tag" other people’s profiles in your photos containing that person. The verb photobomb describes when somebody moves into the frame of a photograph as it is being taken, often as a prank as the person taking the photo does not expect it. It was Collins English Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2014.

Public messages or photos posted to a Facebook user's entire audience or on a specific person's profile page. An old word that suddenly had a different meaning for the digital age.

A word that dates back centuries, but now has the additional meaning of publishing a post that you’re interested in on your own profile on a platform, or sending it on to other users. Reflective of how people use social media to connect with others by sharing content, and how (if not done via private message), this communication is becoming more public.

This was used before Facebook, but now very commonly used to mean removing a person from your friends list on the platform. It was made Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary in 2009.

One of Facebook’s earliest features allows users to say "hello" to or show interest in a friend without having to go through the tedious process of crafting a message. Led to the phenomenon of "poke wars", where friends would annoy each other by constantly "poking" each other to create an irritating flurry of notifications.