Facebook users can now estimate the total amount of time they've spent on the social network with the Facebook Time Machine tool. This interactive calculator, developed by TIME, helps users understand how much time they've lost to Facebook since creating their profile. The tool estimates the time spent based on the timestamps of every post in the user's feed, providing an approximate date of profile creation.
The Facebook Time Machine tool runs through the timestamps on every post in your feed until it reaches the earliest one, using that as the estimated date you created your profile. For extraordinarily active users, this estimate may be later than the actual date they joined.
The tool provides users with an estimate of the total time spent on Facebook, the date they joined, and the number of days they've been active on the platform. It also gives an overview of how Facebook has evolved over the years, showcasing changes in profile pages from 2004 to 2014.
Users can adjust the average time spent on Facebook per day, with an average value set at 17 minutes per day. The tool then calculates the total time wasted on Facebook and provides statistics such as the number of days since joining and the number of status updates posted.