In honor of Benjamin Franklin’s 308th birthday on Jan. 17, we give you his unauthorized Facebook profile.
And it's a gift that keeps on giving.
Created by Visit Philadelphia, the city's official tourism site, Franklin's faux Facebook page is ripe with momentous status updates. Our personal favorite? "Flying a kite in a rainstorm. #yolo."
Franklin even has some words of wisdom when it comes to his love life. Take, for example, his relationship status update after severing ties with Anne-Catherine de Ligniville d'Autricourt: "She turned my proposal, but we've promised to stay friends. Now where did I leave my little black book." (The woman later married French philosopher Claude-Adrien Helvétius, so it probably wasn't meant to be anyway. Sorry, Ben.)
Franklin's Facebook page is chock-full of educational snapshots of his accomplishments. As Time notes, the "Places" section on the left side of the profile includes historic sites, such as the nation's first hospital Pennsylvania Hospital, which Franklin helped build, and the City Tavern, a favorite meeting spot for the Founding Fathers.
"Benjamin Franklin loved writing, socializing and sharing his thoughts and ideas with friends and colleagues, so it’s safe to assume he’d have an equal love of social media," Visit Philadelphia wrote about the profile, which it stressed was "not meant to be an absolutely precise and accurate reflection of history."
Be sure not to miss Franklin's chat list on the right, it'll make you green with envy. (His impressive network includes King Louis XVI, John Hancock and Thomas Jefferson to name a few.)
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