I have noticed this confusion is widespread amongst my Facebook friends, judging from disgruntled Facebook statuses and tweets, anger no different than any other time Facebook has chosen to redesign against our will. Each time they change the aesthetic of our profiles or news feeds people freak out, claiming that they hate Facebook and that they are over it, vying to commit Cyber Suicide and quit Facebook altogether. However, with the integration of the timeline feature, Facebook has done something sneaky. Not only have they totally shifted the way that we digest information on each other’s profiles, they have created something that will keep us tethered to the site for more hours in each day, more days in each year and more years in our lifetime. Although with the introduction of Timeline many people are claiming that they hate Facebook, they will now spend more time than ever on the site.
This increase is for obvious reasons. For example, another recent post on my wall read “Im scared to switch to fb timeline because im terrified for people to see the deep-hidden beauties of us from circa 2006 resurface......and after looking at them from your timeline my fears were right. ” “Facebook stalking,” as many have coined it, has now been taken it an astronomically different level. You can look at my unattractive middle school pictures with a simple click. And this brings us to the first way that Timeline will affect our private lifestyles: it will expose them. It will no longer be considered weird to know what your new friend wore on her 17th birthday. You can figure it out in 2 clicks. What month did you go to that Red Hot Chili Peppers concert? Oh yeah, according to my timeline it was in November of ’08. Our timelines will become a way to learn about each other, the same way that we scroll through Wikipedia to learn about historical figures and events. They will soon become a ubiquitous reference source, a destination whenever we have questions about our past experiences or past interactions with friends and family. With the introduction of the Facebook Timeline, your unattractive middle school pictures are no longer hiding behind a thousand recent images. They are easily accessible by any of your friends- which will lead many people to go on an untagging rampage. Granted, it is easy to remove information from your timeline, but I urge anyone reading this to keep yours the way it is. Yes, there might be some embarrassing pictures, or “hidden beauties” as some might say, but that is the essence of the Timeline. It is designed to show all of your experiences, though some may be less frameworthy.
The second way that Timeline will affect our private lifestyles involves future generations. Within the next few years, people will make a Facebook timeline for their child right as soon as they are born. Some of you won’t believe it until you see it, but I assure you it is going to happen. And it makes sense. As our lives transition from the Guttenberg era to the digital era, we no longer document via photo albums and scrapbooks. A Facebook Timeline will chronicle our children’s lives with minimal effort on our part. The modern parent uploads ample photographs of their children to the web. By simply tagging the child in the image, there will be a perfectly organized visual timeline of the child’s life, composed of pictures from parents, relatives, etc. Plus, how cool would it be for us now if our Timelines extended to our birth? I would love to know which friends were at my 4th birthday party without having to drag out the cumbersome photo albums that my mom compiled for me in the ‘90s. The decision for our Facebook Timelines to span our entire lives was a purposeful choice made by the Facebook developers. We currently have the ability to manually assemble our Timeline from birth, but it will be impossible to make it as accurate as the Timelines of future generations. If you need some help imagining this trend in life-documentation, watch the Google Dear Sophie TV Spot:
Last night I was with a few friends who claimed that they were going to delete their Facebook accounts after seeing the Timeline redesign. I tried to convince them otherwise, although I have noticed that the rejection of the new profile is widespread. A few will probably go to the extent of Cyber Suicide, but I encourage you not to. Over time we will become comfortable with the level of sharing that the Facebook Timeline allows us to achieve. One day I will likely utilize my timeline to scroll back to ’06 and show my kids those “hidden beauties” that were recently uncovered. As I scroll through my trip up the Pacific Coast Highway I will be reminded how good that Morrow Bay coffee shop was when I visited on July 30, 2011. Facebook will become a way for us to digitally chronicle our lives in an easier, more integrated social format. There will be continued outcry from the Millennials, but future generations will find nothing strange about the Timeline interface.
Merry Christmas!