It’s the 20th anniversary of the Harry Potter literary franchise today, and to help you forget about how old that makes you feel, Facebook have planted a fun little Easter egg on your news feed.
On this day, 20 years ago, J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for our friends across the pond – was published.
To celebrate, Potter fans will no doubt be posting on social media left right and centre and, ever the gauge of pop culture, Facebook has jumped on the bandwagon.
In homage to the book that bought us the Hogwarts Express, Hagrid’s flying bike a two-faced Quirrel and – of course – The Sorting Hat, Facebook has embedded a little surprise into your status updates.
Every time you post about Harry Potter or Gryffindor – the brave but IMHO ultimately bland Hogwart’s house – the words will turn red. Accordingly, write about Slytherin and they’ll turn green; the colour of the snake-like folk associated with Salazar.
If you’re posting praise for the Hufflepuffs, first and foremost, well done, and secondly, Facebook will turn your wise words to the colour of yellow. And finally, the word Ravenclaw will turn iridescent blue.
As if that wasn’t enough magic for our Facebook feed, every time you tap one of the coloured in words, a little bit more magic happens.
Look at this…
Magic!
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.