Background Info:
http://gizmodo.com/5843354/facebook-timeline-review-this-is-the-greatest-thing-facebooks-ever-done
http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebook-changes-roundup/
How to enable it now:
http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/how-to-facebook-timeline/
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This is the most ambitious Facebook update yet. In essence, your profile page is your life, digitized. It's a scrapbook, if you're a nerd and you do scrapbooking - but much better. Of course, the longer you've been on Facebook (5 years for me), the more appealing Timeline will seem at first.
A couple of points.
1. This is awesome...for certain types of people. If you like the IDEA of digitizing your personal and social life and presenting it to the world (or specific groups of people), it's awesome. If you're nostalgic for years past, it's awesome. And, of course, if you're narcissistic, you already busted a nut.
2. Not everyone uses Facebook with the intention of conveying an idea, or a sense who they are, to the world. Nowadays, I only use Facebook to chat with people, keep updated on what's going on in popular culture, and post articles/videos/songs I want people to read/watch/listen to. I can see a time when people will be judged on their Timeline and Facebook activities more so than ever, and when revealing less than you want will be just as disadvantageous as revealing too much. I say that because nowadays, most companies care about your LinkedIn profile. The less you have on it, the more companies believe you're outdated and not keeping up with the times because hey, they're 150 year old companies using LinkedIn. In reality, it might just be that you simply don't want to use LinkedIn for the purpose of finding a job or networking. You shouldn't be judged wrongly for it and it shouldn't cost you a job, or in the case of Facebook, people shouldn't think you're a loser if they haven't seen you tagged in party photos.
3. Timeline has serious privacy implications because it streamlined and made it easy for people to look at your updates/activities/friends/photos/videos like never before. I don't think I like the idea of that even existing out there in the digital sphere, let alone making it open to people on my friends list. So, my Timeline won't have anything more than people can see now and I've restricted a lot of it. However, I won't go back and delete a lot of stuff, now anyway, because I'm a sucker for nostalgia and want to go back and reminisce from time to time. However, that might change soon. As soon as I find a way (whether that's a different medium or get over it), to chat pointlessly with friends (that AIM/MSN used to be for) and not feel disconnected from people, I'm deleting Facebook.
So, my advice is to enable Timeline NOW before it rolls out to everyone and get a head start on customizing it so that you don't reveal anything that you didn't want to. As far as I can tell, It does keep settings that you have already. So, if you've disabled all tagging of yourself as I have, it won't show it on Timeline either. There's a "view as" feature so you can know what people can see.
http://gizmodo.com/5843354/facebook-timeline-review-this-is-the-greatest-thing-facebooks-ever-done
http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebook-changes-roundup/
How to enable it now:
http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/how-to-facebook-timeline/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the most ambitious Facebook update yet. In essence, your profile page is your life, digitized. It's a scrapbook, if you're a nerd and you do scrapbooking - but much better. Of course, the longer you've been on Facebook (5 years for me), the more appealing Timeline will seem at first.
A couple of points.
1. This is awesome...for certain types of people. If you like the IDEA of digitizing your personal and social life and presenting it to the world (or specific groups of people), it's awesome. If you're nostalgic for years past, it's awesome. And, of course, if you're narcissistic, you already busted a nut.
2. Not everyone uses Facebook with the intention of conveying an idea, or a sense who they are, to the world. Nowadays, I only use Facebook to chat with people, keep updated on what's going on in popular culture, and post articles/videos/songs I want people to read/watch/listen to. I can see a time when people will be judged on their Timeline and Facebook activities more so than ever, and when revealing less than you want will be just as disadvantageous as revealing too much. I say that because nowadays, most companies care about your LinkedIn profile. The less you have on it, the more companies believe you're outdated and not keeping up with the times because hey, they're 150 year old companies using LinkedIn. In reality, it might just be that you simply don't want to use LinkedIn for the purpose of finding a job or networking. You shouldn't be judged wrongly for it and it shouldn't cost you a job, or in the case of Facebook, people shouldn't think you're a loser if they haven't seen you tagged in party photos.
3. Timeline has serious privacy implications because it streamlined and made it easy for people to look at your updates/activities/friends/photos/videos like never before. I don't think I like the idea of that even existing out there in the digital sphere, let alone making it open to people on my friends list. So, my Timeline won't have anything more than people can see now and I've restricted a lot of it. However, I won't go back and delete a lot of stuff, now anyway, because I'm a sucker for nostalgia and want to go back and reminisce from time to time. However, that might change soon. As soon as I find a way (whether that's a different medium or get over it), to chat pointlessly with friends (that AIM/MSN used to be for) and not feel disconnected from people, I'm deleting Facebook.
So, my advice is to enable Timeline NOW before it rolls out to everyone and get a head start on customizing it so that you don't reveal anything that you didn't want to. As far as I can tell, It does keep settings that you have already. So, if you've disabled all tagging of yourself as I have, it won't show it on Timeline either. There's a "view as" feature so you can know what people can see.
