Until now, Facebook’s
Timeline has been voluntary, but Mark Zuckerberg has announced that in the next
seven days the feature will become compulsory and users will have seven days to
delete any unwanted content before it’s laid bare for all to see.
The social media
giant’s Timeline was first rolled out last year , and users have been given the
chance to have a play with the new features before committing, but recent
movements have sparked concern about privacy on the network, with many users
unhappy that their every move is being put in a virtual museum.
Zuckerberg announced the changes during last September’s f8 Conference
and insisted that people wanted to ‘share their entire lives’ and have ‘total
control’ over how users’ content appeared.
His argument was that people are now documenting their entire lives on
Facebook, but once the information falls off the current profile page, memories
are getting lost; hence the invention of Timeline.
It can’t be denied that people are investing an awful lot in
Facebook in terms of conversations, photos, videos, etc, (which is one of the
reasons I think Facebook will be around for a long time to come) but is part of
that appeal the fact everyone is exposed to your movements? Or is it simply because
you and a chosen few can access it, on the occasions you need to? Some comments
being bandied around are very black and white – if you want privacy, don’t have
a Facebook account. But now that people do have this sentimental investment in
the platform, it’s not that easy to just deactivate your account. I’m sure most
of the 800 million users enjoy their Facebook account, but they don’t
necessarily want to share every single element of their lives with the world.
I jumped on the Timeline bandwagon fairly early (and I admit
it took me a while to get used to) but none of my Facebook friends seemed to
follow suit, and still now there are only a handful that have embraced the new
look, which suggest most remain cautious.
Privacy issues aside, my fear is that some users will try
and ignore the imminent change and in seven days time will have a profile full
of information they’d rather have kept hidden. Another concern is that the
Timeline feature is radically different to the existing layout - previous
changes have riled many users, but they haven’t actually forced huge changes.
I’m not sure every Facebook user is going to fancy getting to grips with
something so different.
For me the jury is still out, and only time will tell if
this latest move will be a success, or whether this time Facebook has gone a
step too far.
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