Does Facebook Timeline Make Sense For You?
I have yet to adopt the new Facebook Timeline interface. I don’t want to. I’m comfortable with using Facebook the way it is, thank-you-very-much. When I found this post on mashable about how to revert back to Facebook classic, I knew I wasn’t alone in wishing some things would just stay the same.
I know I probably sound like a curmudgeon to you, but honestly, when things I use on a constant basis—like Facebook—go through an “upgrade” it’s all I can do to not pout. They say they are making their product more user friendly, but all change has a learning curve. I’m a busy freelancer, if I don’t have to learn new things I’m fine with it.
I know that I am going to have to use Facebook Timeline in the near future—there’s no getting around it—but I’m not sure I really like the new look. For one thing, I have to scroll down just to see my friend’s status updates. I don’t really care about having a great big photo at the top, either. I think it just takes up valuable real estate.
“We want to design a place that feels like your home. Where you tell story online is very personal. You spend a lot of time curating it. We want to make timeline a place you’re proud to call your home,” Zuckerberg said of the Timeline at the f8 conference. “It’s a completely new aesthetic for Facebook. It gives you the ability to curate all your stories so you can express who you really are.” —huffingtonpost.com
I don’t want Facebook to feel like my home! I want to have an actual life that doesn’t involve a computer or Internet. I want to be able to enjoy a family meal without someone updating their status, or watch a movie without checking wikipedia for “factual” information. I’m also not all that interested in “expressing who I really am” on Facebook. That’s not what I use it for.
At its core, Timeline is a chronology of a user’s life on Facebook, with items automatically appearing based on an algorithm intended to capture a user’s most important life events. —socialmediaexaminer.com
Yikes! There is an algorhythm that’s going to capture my most important life events! I wonder how they figure this out…and how accurate it is.
Timeline wants to recreate your life online. And this frightens me a little bit. It frightens me because I teach college kids, and I always warn them that what they post on Facebook is published material—so to think twice about how they want to represent themselves. Now, it seems like Timeline is making it easier to do this, and easier for others to paw through your life from start to finish. For people who grew up with smartphones in their hand, this is no big deal. But to me, I think, is nothing private anymore?
Never has it been so easy to slice and dice your Facebook activity over the years, which can be particularly troublesome if the way in which you’ve used the network has changed over the years. Those that used the social network during their college years, for instance, may have behaved differently than they do today back when it was closed environment with no grownups allowed. —bostinno.com
Let’s turn from personal use to professional use. Will I have to use Timeline on my business Facebook page? So far, I think my business pages are safe.
The essence of a timeline is to show the history of something. Do businesses want to show their history graphically, and more important, do their customers care? And what if that company has some negative publicity in its history: Would it want to hide that? What if it has rebranded and doesn’t want customers to think about the old perception of the company? In short, timeline for companies or brands could be boring or problematic.—allfacebook.com
Do you know that once someone likes your Facebook business page they rarely go back to it? They are 40 to 120 times more likely to see your posts in their news feed, according to Brian Carter, who wrote this article for allfacebook.com.
Carter argues that Timeline would not affect your business page, because the news feed still appears.
Timeline cannot majorly impact how people experience Facebook, and a timeline for brand pages would not make much impact, either. For something to impact your customers, it has to affect the news feed. —allfacebook.com
I am in hopes that Facebook will not implement Timeline for their business pages. Not just because it is something new that I will have to learn, but also because for many businesses, it doesn’t make sense. What will they come up with instead? We’ll have to wait to find out.
What do you think? Am I off my rocker? Should I just accept change and move on? Am I the only one who isn’t in love with Timeline?
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The only thing I really like about it is the large image on the top. I’ve seen some really creative designs made for that, and having that is the only reason I eventually gave in to timeline.
I dislike the Timeline interface because it’s a visual jumble to me. It’s not laid out to fit the way that I perceive information, so I will not switch my profile over to it voluntarily. But I know others who love Timeline’s look. I think that how people react to the interface has a lot to do with how they process information.
I really don’t like the new timeline… I think its cluttered and makes it harder to find the information your looking for. I’ll go on someones page who posted something cool a day before and not be able to find it. I think its definitely a step in the wrong direction. People flocked to Facebook because of its simple design compared to Myspace, but with each update they add more and more feature and it seems to keep getting uglier…
I really dislike it as well. Call me old fashioned, but if i have to use facebook, I would like it to remain largely the same.
Look what happened to myspace when they overhauled their site. No one cared.
Good point about MySpace! Too much change can be, well, too much for people.
I agree that finding a specific information is sometimes harder than it was before the timeline. But I love the way it is presented, it has a well designed appearance and sometimes it is lovely to look back, what you have posted years ago, in my case, what did influence me on the web. sooooooo, nice, i like it, even though there are some disadvantages.
With each of Facebook’s changes, I get more and more turned off by how they push to invade everyone’s privacy. The philosophy is apparently that everything should be public. Every aspect of everyone’s life shouldn’t be exploited for marketing purposes, and that’s what I feel is happening. How long before someone can monetize their friend’s list? What started as a fun way to share photos and catch up with old friends is becoming Big Brother, always watching and recording everything that people do.
I love being in the internet design/dev business because it is always changing, so I don’t get bored.
As far as Facebook goes… as long as they don’t give users access to their css to create gross personalized everything the way MySpace did(does?), I am happy.
I agree with all people here. I truly hate time line. Stuff just got harder to find. I just use facebook for business and time to time check some funny stuff people shared (pictures & videos) and that’s it for me. I just scroll down and see everything. Why to make it harder? It just has no sense.
I really hope Facebook won’t push on their users to use this new time line. That would be the day I will visit facebook just for business and nothing more!
I do agree on this. Great article by the way! Change is really permanent and inevitable. I liked the point you stated out that you don’t want Facebook to feel or be your home. I’d rather like Facebook as my social networking site too rather than my home to pour my personal stuffs there. We do need privacy. Facebook doesn’t listen to their users on what they like or prefer.
You can call me a curmudgeon too, I guess. I’ve never even used Facebook due to the exact reasons you stated – which I could see from the very first time I saw it on the web. Yes, I know that it’s becoming harder and harder to “just say no” as more and more (shall we say sheep or at least the naivete’ who fall into most things without thinking) succumb; and, yes, my web sites and business may have taken a hit or two because of my lack of presence [and even Google's complicency].
What you describe sounds nearly identical to the “new coke” snafu of the not to distant past. A company, in their avarice for world domination, becomes a bit too full of themselves and believes THEY know people better than people do themselves and comes up with a “new” scheme for market share. AND, they foist it on customers with smiley faces and rhetoric which are mostly smoke and mirrors – (a vested interest masquerading as a moral principle).
Ask yourself, just how was that foolishness taken down? And then, what do I personally need to do to make it happen. Believe me, there IS a life outside of Facebook!
Well I don’t mind it, but honestly within 1 month or less, like with every other update, you won’t even remember how it used to look like.
I use the large image for important graphics, I won’t complain too much about other things though.
I have the new timeline layout and, apart from the fact that the boxes for each post are more clearly defined, I can’t really see much difference. You look at the central line running through the middle of the page: start at the top and that’s your most recent post. As you run down the line, each new blob links to the previous one. Yes, it’s in two columns now, so your eye has to zigzag down the page, but it’s no less logical than the old design. It took me a few hours to get used to it but I find it much more aesthetically pleasing. Each to their own, I guess.
I use the news feed to see what everyone’s up to, so it doesn’t bother me where these updates go on my page.
As for the question “is nothing private anymore?”, you’re right to teach your students to use FB, and indeed any online space, responsibly. I wouldn’t dream of putting anything really personal anywhere on the web. For me, the timeline layout means little, but I can see that, especially to younger users, the way it’s being promoted might indeed incentivise people to use it with less caution that they should.
And Zuckerberg’s “We want to make timeline a place you’re proud to call your home”? Excuse me while squirm my way upstairs and kneel before the big white bowl in my bathroom. Who writes that stuff?!
Interesting post – thanks!
I should have included the new Gmail look in this post. I pushed off converting to the new look as long as possible. And, as with everything else, I assumed I would just adapt and forget about the old Gmail. But I haven’t! I still really hate the new look and how I have to use it. I find that it’s actually LESS streamlined than it used to be.
Timeline’s kind of enjoyable! I find all of my updates on my Newsfeed anyway, which isn’t changing, and rarely go to people’s profile page, much less my own, to check information out, so the shift has not been a big deal at all. As for this: “Now, it seems like Timeline is making it easier to do this, and easier for others to paw through your life from start to finish,” they’ll only see what you post. So don’t post stuff you don’t want people to see! Easy.
So go for it! It’s not that big of a deal.
I’m dreading the moment when the Timeline is going to be forced on me. I opted out of it back when it was still a choice, and now I’m hoping they won’t switch my account too soon.
Over time my priorities shifted, I got a full time job, I made friends in my professional field, I started freelancing… I’m desperately trying to remember if I need to go back through my old posts and censor myself. I mean, as it’s pointed out in this post, back when I was still a student my wall was full of posts from Mafia Wars on how I just assassinated my 90th victim. Not something I want my coworkers to know (though, I’m proud to have a reputation for being a cold-hearted hitman amongst my friends).
Facebook should be called Stalkbook and many other things! Whilst I am the first to admit my internet addiction – aren’t we all – we are losing the ability to communicate face to face and therefore altering the way the human race relates. Anyway, I’m heading onto a different topic here – re Timeline – why was it introduced – because the fb interface designers were bored with their existing design and so decided to change things. Within a year, Timeline will be old and a new layout option will be created.
I love it, it is a nice way to have your events/places/messages organized. It is easy enough to hide an event/album/series of comments from the timeline if it is not the “feel” you want on your page.
For people who worry about privacy, why are you putting things on facebook at all?
After reading The Facebook Effect, I now appreciate how and why they redesign the site. It is always the vocal minority who complain about the changes, but soon enough everyone forgets it and realizes how useful it can be.
I Love the new timeline, actually, I use more Facebook now. Feels more natural and fluid. If you don’t want to make it more like your home or your life, just .::::: don’t use it that way :::::., is that simple. Some people talk about this like if it isn’t avoidable, a magic force that push you to write your private stuff…
Well it isn’t, you have the control. You can put some useful information, pictures of work, I don’t now what ever you want… I really thing that it’s stupid to thing that they are pushing people to publish private stuff, those are a fields whiout *
I believe every business can adapt and make the most positive use of facebook pages even with the timeline turned on, and I also think most of the points raised here are simply whining…