Originally Published: February 1, 2012 http://blogs.republicanherald.com/tech/?p=235
Working in the news industry, whether I’m talking about the articles I’m writing for the newspaper or the blog entries I’m writing for Technoholic, there’s one thing that I’ve realized and that’s “the times they are a-changin’,” so take it from Bob Dylan.
In the technology world, one thing constantly changing is Facebook, which I know is welcomed by some people, but met with anger by others. The only thing I have to say about this, I think can be summed up in a quote by Shmi Skywalker to her son Anakin as he was leaving Tatooine in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace:
“You can’t stop change any more than you can stop the suns from setting.”
Facebook may be changing, but most of the time, the changes are great, and think about it, if Facebook didn’t make changes, it wouldn’t continue to grow and “change” the way we interact online. The latest round of changes, which will be mandatory for everyone soon, is to upgrade to the Timeline profile. On the surface Timeline seems like it’s only a large photo at the top of the page and a new arrangement with a line down the center, but it’s much more than that. I’ve also heard, from talking with a friend through a Facebook conversation that people are getting the impression it’s just another way for someone to further stalk your life, which I don’t think is true either.
Let’s face it, we can’t remember everything that we do, and most of us don’t have the time (or the persistence) to keep a journal, so this is essentially what Facebook is doing for you. Facebook is making a scrapbook of everything you do, all of your interactions with friends, relationships, places you go, you can upload videos and photos from when you go out with friends or take trips, it keeps track of the apps you are using such as seeing what you’re listening to with Spotify or what you’re reading on Washington Post Social Reader, and all of it is right there in chronological order. How cool would it be if Facebook is still around in 20 years (which it just may be at this rate) and you can show your kids all the great things you did in your life?
It’s all pretty impressive to say the least actually, from my point of view, and it’s all made possible by the engineers of Facebook and the innovators of social networks.
While you may say this is just making it easier for people to stalk you, in this day and age, you shouldn’t have anyone as a Facebook friend that you don’t want to be able to see what you’re up to. There are so many privacy settings, it’s crazy, so people actually can’t see all your stuff unless you let them. People that you do let see your profile though have also always been able to go back through your history, it just took longer before, but now you can go back by year, then my month, all the way back to your birth. Also, everyone is using services like Foursquare to check-in at places, and also checking in with Facebook places, so we already know exactly where you are most of the time thanks to you.
One thing I think is interesting about this is nothing is set in stone, and you can actually delete or add events in your Timeline as well.
If all this doesn’t help change your mind, than I’m not sure what will, Just keep in mind that in another month or two, you’ll forget all about the changes and will be used to it. It happens pretty much every time Facebook updates it’s site. Can you remember exactly how Facebook looked when you joined? I know I can’t really exactly how it was in 2005, but what I do remember most is how it was only for college students, so no older people, high school students, etc. So, who knows where Facebook will be in the next couple years, but I can say Facebook will continue to change. So please, try to embrace it, especially Timeline. I’ve been using it since the beta in September, and it really is a great way to express yourself and keep track of everything you do.
Before ending this post, I have one last thing to say. If you really want to try to bring back some of the old Facebook features, check out this post on Mashable, to learn how to get some back through Firefox extensions. I won’t go into detail about them, but they will remove the news ticker, hide Facebook questions and polls, revert back to the old photo viewer, hide offline friends like the old version of chat, and bring the comment button back.
I hope this was helpful, but take my advise and embrace change!
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