Last week, Facebook announced it will make the Timeline profile mandatory for all users in coming weeks, inciting mixed reactions across the nation and on campus.
The Timeline offers a linear, chronological display of activity and makes archived Facebook data readily available.
The profile features a list of years in the upper right-hand corner that users can click to view content from the selected year. Timeline makes old relationships, birthday wishes and photos more accessible.
Upon activating Timeline, users have seven days to review and clean up their profiles before they go live and are viewable to the public. Users may hide information and add events from past years.
According to Continuing Education IT coordinator and self-proclaimed social media enthusiast Alex Cook, Facebook’s ultimate goal — gathering new users and collecting their information — remains the same as before the development of the Timeline profile.
Cook said as Facebook continues to grow, the information will become more interconnected and more valuable. New Facebook apps like Spotify, which tracks music listening, and the Washington Post Social Reader, which displays articles users read, are collecting more specific and robust information than ever before.
“As our real lives become more intertwined with our digital lives, we’ll see the development of more pure, organic connections through social media,” Cook said. “How people operate on Facebook already reflects how you conduct your life.”
Although Facebook is collecting more information than ever, its new layout may not resonate with members. The mandatory rollout announcement has received mixed reviews from users and students.
Paul Dean, graphic design associate professor, said he finds the Timeline design cluttered.
“It’s more confusing. I don’t know where to look,” Dean said.
He said the profile is “too radical, disruptive and distracting.” He said the former design was more user-friendly and efficient.
Cook said he adopted the Timeline as soon as it became available. He is not entirely convinced by the graphic layout, but thinks that it follows current technology trends.
“If you were used to the old one, [the Timeline] can be really jarring,” Cook said. “But it’s very picture-oriented, and that appeals to people.”
According to a poll by the security researcher Sophos, 84 percent of users hold negative views of the new profile. Of that 84 percent, 60 percent responded with “The Facebook Timeline worries me.”
Dean said he shares a similar sentiment.
“I hate the idea of this being forced on everyone,” he said. “I don’t like people being able to look through my past.”
Cook said Facebook, in recent years, has become a convergence point for every aspect of people’s lives.
“A lot of times, when I’m looking up a restaurant, or a club, or a business, I’ll go straight to Facebook,” he said. “I know that I’ll find the information I want there. It’s a way of normalizing your online presence, both for people and businesses.”
The result of this convergence, he said, is a massive accumulation of information the social networking site can use to cater advertisements to users’ interests.
“The valuable thing on Facebook is not the advertising space, which is pretty small,” Cook said. “It’s all the information they collect and the interconnectedness of that information.”
Dean said he shares as little information as possible because he’s suspicious of personal data mining. He said he’s afraid of Facebook sharing his information with advertisers and possibly the government.
Cook acknowledges that the privacy issue is worrying, but as long as Facebook remains ubiquitous, and people keep signing up, there is not much that can be done.
“Facebook is free,” he said. “There’s not a lot of leverage for complaint there.”
But that’s not stopping students.
Jacob Templet, chemical engineering sophomore, said he likes the appearance of the cover photo, but thinks the new organization is convoluted.
“I don’t like it — it reminds me of Myspace,” he said. “It’s not old school with the blue bar anymore. It used to be plain and simple.”
Sam Pitre, mechanical engineering junior, agrees with Cook. He thinks the profile appears user-friendly and the social media site will be more effective when there is one universal profile again.
 
 
 
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