Facebook wants you to know that a lot happened in 2014, and people shared it on Facebook.
The social network is out with its year-end video looking back at major events. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, a viral hit from the summer, leads the clip. That's followed by nods to Maya Angelou, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Joan Rivers and Robin Williams, who all died in 2014. Sports makes for a big theme, with highlights from the World Cup, the Sochi Olympics, the Super Bowl and Derek Jeter's retirement.
Education rights activist Malala Yousafzai won a Nobel Peace Prize. Jews and Arabs expressed their love for one another in an online campaign. Protestors around the country demonstrated against the police shooting of Mike Brown in Missouri. The European Space Agency landed a probe on a comet. Facebook helped raise money to fight ebola.
Overall, the approach is fitting, given Facebook's outsized role in the modern media economy. And the video's not a bad cheat sheet for some of 2014's grabbiest headlines. (For more on which topics earned the most chatter on the platform, see Facebook's microsite.)
The video is also a little socially awkward. YouTube's annual recap, for example, was more like fresh entertainment—remixing pop culture references with different talent to offer something new, if derivative.
This feels, by contrast, rehashed and self-promotional. But nostalgic and connected are better words in status updates.