Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms, with over 2.8 billion monthly active users as of 2021. With so many users, Facebook contains a massive amount of personal information, including details about when each user joined the platform.
Short Answer
Yes, Facebook does show the year and month you joined Facebook, but only you can see this information in your own profile settings. Other users cannot see the specific date you joined. However, they may be able to estimate when you joined based on when you became Facebook friends with others.
Checking When You Joined on Your Profile
To find the date you joined Facebook, follow these steps:
- Go to your Facebook profile
- Click on the dropdown arrow in the top right corner
- Select “Settings & Privacy”
- Go to the “General Account Settings” tab
- Under “Account Ownership and Control,” you will see the year and month you joined Facebook
So in your own Facebook account settings, you can clearly see the year and month you joined the platform. However, this information is not displayed on your public profile that other users see.
What Other Users Can See
While you can see your join date, other users cannot see the specific date you created your account. However, they may be able to estimate when you joined based on other public information:
- Friendship dates – Users can see the year you became friends with other users, so they could guess when your account was created
- “Friends on Facebook” – This section shows your friends sorted by how long you’ve been friends
- Old posts and photos – Public posts and photos you’ve added over the years give a sense of how long you’ve been on Facebook
- Profile information – Details in your profile like work history and education can indicate when you likely created an account
So while your join date is not displayed directly, savvy Facebook users may be able to make an educated guess as to when you first signed up based on other timeline details. But they won’t know the exact month and year like you can in your account settings.
Why Facebook Hides Your Join Date
Facebook intentionally keeps your join date private and does not share the specific month and year you opened your account publicly. There are a few reasons why:
- Privacy – Keeping the exact join date private gives users more control over their personal information.
- Security – If the join date is hidden, it makes it harder for hackers to access accounts.
- Reduce targeting – Knowledge of when you joined could be used by advertisers and others to target you.
- Avoid stratification – Not showing join dates creates a more equal playing field between long-time and newly joined members.
Facebook likely wants to promote privacy, security, equality, and avoid ways that users could be targeted based on account age. So keeping the join date only visible to you in your settings aligns with those goals.
How to Find When a Facebook Friend Joined
Since you can’t see the exact join date for other users, how can you figure out when a friend’s account was created? Here are some tips:
Check Your Friendship Date
Go to your list of Facebook friends, and pay attention to the “Friends Since” date shown next to their names. This shows the year you became friends, which gives you a rough estimate for when they likely joined Facebook.
Look at Their Old Posts and Photos
Go back through their profile pictures and posts to the earliest dates you can find. This will indicate the approximate period in which they created their account and started using Facebook actively.
See Mutual Friend Dates
Look at the list of mutual friends you share with that person. Note the date when your mutual friend first became friends with them. The oldest friendship date can reveal roughly when they joined.
Check Major Life Events
Major life milestones like high school graduation, college, new jobs, marriage, etc. provide clues as to when someone likely joined Facebook around those life stages.
Ask Them Directly
If you want to know the exact month and year without guessing, your best bet is to just ask them directly when they first joined Facebook!
Pros of Join Dates Being Private
Here are some of the advantages that come with Facebook keeping join dates and account creation details private:
- Prevents targeting based on account age – Keeps advertisers, scammers, and bad actors from specifically going after newer or long-time users
- Avoids stratification – Eliminates divides between older and newer members, creating an equal playing field
- Increases privacy – Gives users more control over who can see their personal timeline information
- Improves security – Makes it harder for hackers to exploit account details like join date
- Reduces bias – Limits assumptions users might make about others based on when they joined Facebook
Overall, Facebook not displaying your specific join date publicly has a lot of benefits for privacy, security, fairness, and reducing bias.
Cons of Join Dates Being Private
However, there are also some disadvantages or critiques about Facebook not revealing account age:
- Reduces transparency – Removes one data point that gives insight into how long someone has been on Facebook
- Limits customization – Stops users from optionally choosing to display their join date if they want to
- Hurts data analysis – Makes it harder for researchers, analysts, and watchdogs to track Facebook growth and usage over time
- Decreases validation – Removes a trust and identity signal that could help validate real vs fake accounts
- Increases guessing – May lead people to guess account ages based on limited information, potentially inaccurately
There are reasonable counterarguments that showing account join dates could add transparency, customization options, data analysis capability, validation, and reduce guessing.
The Impact of Facebook’s Growth on Join Dates
Facebook launched in 2004 exclusively for Harvard students before expanding to other colleges and eventually the general public starting in 2006. Facebook’s user base and adoption grew very rapidly in its early years:
| Year | Facebook Users |
|---|---|
| 2004 | 1 million |
| 2005 | 5.5 million |
| 2006 | 12 million |
| 2007 | 50 million |
| 2008 | 100 million |
| 2009 | 250 million |
This massive growth changed the culture and environment of Facebook quite drastically. Early adopters experienced a very different and more private Facebook than users who joined post-2008 when growth exploded. Knowledge of who joined during which era provides contextual insights into their experiences and perspectives.
However, the joins dates don’t reveal the full picture. Some early users may have left and returned later. And users who joined in different eras likely had varying levels of activity and connections. So while join dates provide some insights into Facebook membership, they should not lead to simplistic assumptions about users’ experiences and involvement.
Should Facebook Make Join Dates Public?
There are reasonable arguments on both sides of whether Facebook should make the specific join dates and ages of accounts public by default. Here are some considerations for each viewpoint:
Reasons to Keep Join Dates Private
- Prevent targeting or harassment based on account age
- Reduce bias, discrimination, and unequal treatment of members
- Protect user privacy and give control over who sees join date
- Improve security by hiding information that could help hackers
- Avoid stratification or hierarchy within the community
Reasons to Make Join Dates Public
- Increase transparency about length of membership
- Allow users choice to display their join date if desired
- Enable better data analysis of growth and engagement over time
- Help identify fake and recently created accounts
- Provide additional identity validation signal
Facebook deliberated this issue when first designing platform settings over 15 years ago. They likely decided that privacy, security, fairness, and reducing targeting concerns outweighed transparency, choice, analysis, validation, and identity benefits.
Overall there are good-faith reasons on both sides of this debate. Facebook may reevaluate whether to reveal account join dates publicly given the increasing focus on transparency, academic research, and fighting misinformation in recent years.
Conclusion
Facebook keeps the specific date you joined hidden from other users to increase privacy, security, and fairness across different account ages. However, you can see the year and month you created your profile in your account settings. While your join date is not visible publicly, other users may be able to estimate when you likely joined based on data points like friendship dates, old posts and photos, profile details, and mutual friends.
Making join dates private has advantages like reducing targeting, stratification, and bias. But downsides include decreasing transparency, data analysis, and identity validation. Reasonable arguments exist for and against displaying account age information. Overall the choice comes down to how Facebook prioritizes competing values like privacy, security, research, and customization options.
Going forward, Facebook may reassess whether to reveal account join dates to strike a new balance between protecting users and providing transparency. But for now, the specific month and year you created your profile remains visible only to you.