It sounds ridiculous now with everything that's happened in social media in the meantime, but I can see that being a thing in 2006 when the vibe of social media was very different to what it's become now. Back then it was just a tidy little PHP site for you to chat and share photos with friends and family on. Literally nothing appeared in your feed that wasn't a post from a Friend. It was basically a Whatsapp group with a photo gallery feature.

Since Facebook didn't have the baggage it has now, it's much easier to read refusing to join your girlfriend's circle of friends and family back then as a wider rejection of her as a person, same as if you refused to join her family Whatsapp/Telegram/whatever group chat.

I'm not taking her side here, but I wanted to give a bit of perspective for people looking at it through the lens of 2025.

I'm assuming the GF would break up with OP over it. Which is itself a big red flag.

Edit: fwiw, it does seem like there is quite a bit of drama and bullshit over choice of phone (Android vs Apple)

Nothing like that. It was more like she was insistent and I didn't feel like it was a hill to die on at the time.

when a guy that blocked her, she looked around as she thought people were listening to her.