I surmise by the lack of large scale, vocal revolution that Facebook has not yet imposed its new profile, Timeline, on all its users yet. I have to admit, I’m sort of excited for the moment when that happens. I really enjoy all of the furor associated with even the most minor changes to Facebook – and this one’s a doozy. I’m pretty comfortable with most things social media, and I really don’t mind the vast majority of my personal information being publicly available. Nevertheless, Facebook Timeline even made me pause for a moment. It’s an extremely powerful way of navigating all the information you have ever provided to Facebook. OK, that’s fine, I’ve never put anything up on Facebook that I’m embarrassed about (trying to follow the rule of thumb not to put anything anywhere in Cyberspace that you wouldn’t want your wife or your boss to see). I can see students being upset, because 5-6 years is quite alot in the timeline of a young adult. For me, not so much.
That is, until I realized that “Timeline” goes back to graduate school, college, highschool, and birth. For now, that space is just empty, since Facebook didn’t exist. BUT, you will be able to retroactively change the date of pictures AND tag those pictures with your friends. Thus, any picture ever taken of me in middle school, high school, and college could be associated with my Timeline. GULP! Nobody ever told me when I was 13 that my future students would be able to see me with the mullet and the Guadalcanal Diary concert T-shirt (anyone remember them?). How do I get off this thing? Further digging into the privacy controls calmed my fear, realizing that I did have sufficient control over this timeline that I could prevent truly embarrassing photos from appearing (mildly embarrassing photos are part of the fun…are you out there Samantha Stewart, I still have our 1987 homecoming picture and I’m not afraid to use it).
Facebook has done a few things right this time, as they they have learned from their past mistakes. It won’t change the uproar that’s sure to result, but I think it will mitigate the long-term damage. 1) I do believe adequate privacy controls are in place to protect users who want to restrict this feature. 2) They have allowed social media geeks (read: me) to enable this feature ahead of time, explore its strengths and weakness so the mass population can know what’s coming. 3) I really do think it’s a fabulous feature that will enhance the value of Facebook to its users.
Finally, I actually like this presentation better from a privacy standpoint. Facebook has always had this data. The transparency created by Timeline makes users more aware of what data it has, allows users to better navigate and control this data, and may lead users to think twice about what data they contribute, knowing it will be on Timeline forever.
Web 2.1 
Well it won’t be on Timeline forever if you delete it! I think those who start raging about the upcoming Facebook Timeline really need to read this. You basically addressed most issues that people would have. People don’t like change and I think that’s just natural.
What do you think Google+ will have to do now to catch up to Facebook? Or do you believe Google+ should be supplementary to Facebook?
I’m still a skeptic when it comes to Facebook Timeline, but your post has started to allay my fears. It just means I’ll have to dig in and spend some quality time with my privacy settings in the next few weeks, to make sure I’m prepared for the changeover. The best defense is a good offense, as they say.
But I’ll still note this: It’s not the availability of this “past life” information that bothers me. Because if a Facebook friend of mine was motivated and wanted to do a bit of digging, he/she could easily find all of the pictures and comments I posted back in 2004. What bothers me is the enhanced visibility of this information — Facebook Timeline seems to bring these older photos and posts to the forefront, whether we’d like our friends to see them or not. Sometimes the past is best kept in the past.
Again, I’ll likely become one of the converted over time, especially because I’ve been given fair warning about the upcoming change, and it’s had some time to sink in. But for now, I’m still on the fence.