Am I the only one who thinks the new Facebook “Timeline” is a HORRIBLE idea and will only complicate everything even more?
For starters, you’ll have to pick a GIANT picture (apart from your profile picture) that represents you even MORE than your profile picture. You don’t have to be IN it; it’s more like the cover of a book left hanging there to be judged, only instead of people reading your book they’ll be scrolling down over what seems like endless amounts of useless information.
It’s like we’re back to that version of Facebook where applications ruled and profiles were ten meters of scroll-material long. Your news feed will consist primarily of what you wrote, said, liked, ate, drank, saw, smelled, and other futile details of every minute of every hour of your day. The same goes for what games you’ve played (Farmville, Smallville, SADville), music you’ve listened to, movies you watched and even places you’ve been.
In other words: Your profile has become a complete documentation of the tiniest details concerning every waking second of your not-so-pathetic-anymore life.
Whatever happened to the main goal of Facebook? The one that USED to be written right there on the main page before you signed up? I thought Facebook was a means to share pictures, or to keep in touch with friends who are far away? But the more Facebook makes its “adjustments,” the more it seems like the goal of this gigantic mass of useless information is shifting towards archiving every tiny detail of peoples’ lives…
Do you remember caring this much five years ago about what someone (most of the time someone you barely even know) said or listened to or watched today? Do you remember feeling the need to constantly connect with people in a few words on a shiny screen, or simply through a “Like” button? Honestly, five years ago, who would’ve thought the verbs “Like,” “Comment,” “Share” and “Message” would have a completely virtual connotation? Who would’ve thought the word “Friend” would turn into a VERB? Who would’ve thought completely NEW verbs would appear? Like “Facebook me” or “Unfriend her”…
Facebook’s changing the way we look at things, changing our priorities, and whether we realize it or not, Facebook’s become an extremely powerful tool. Somewhere in cyberspace is a mass archive of everything everyone around the world is doing. This goes far beyond any survey a single association, organization or even government can make, beyond any information anyone can gather… Heck! I’ll bet even the C.I.A has dibs on all the info on Facebook! Info that god-knows-who can access! For God’s sake, the other day I heard a friend tell me that he “Checked In” to a mall and received a notification saying “shop at *store name* now and you will have a 30% discount!”
Communication utility? Or tool…?
Facebook’s turning into the modern-day “Big Brother,” and it sure as heck is “Watching you!”
Who else thinks this is getting scary?
– Jwanah Qudsi