In The Social web , Movie Mark Zuckerberg describes his projection as the entire college societal scene , put online . In a sense , he wholly pull it off . Now Real Zuck ’s lept beyond beer pong : your full existence , Facebook - ified . It ’s terrifyingly awing .
Why It Matters
This is the single enceinte change that Facebook ’s ever pushed on us — and soon it ’ll be pushed to 750 million human beings around the planet . Facebook require Timeline , which is going to completely replace the iconic Facebook Profile , to represent your entire life . It ’ll be a optical account of your existence , starting at your birth . Yes , the fact that you come out of your female parent ( and when ! and where ! ) is now noted on Facebook ’s servers . Love , departure , friends , frenemies , birthdays , detachment , cats , kegstands — all of it , from zeroday to today , shared with everyone you know online . This is merely the unmarried most ambitious attempt to catalogue the tangled mass of human lives in the story of the net .
Using It
Facebook Timeline is beautiful , and that ’s something I do n’t think I ’ve ever said about Facebook . Most of the site ’s update have been haphazard , glued together like the work of an engineering masquerading as a graphic designer with grave personality disorder . The legacy of psychotically unfriendly , entirely irrational new features cease here . Timeline not only take care wonderful , but it ’s wonderful to use . The chronological stream of the Old Wall remains , but is supplemented by everything you ’ve ever done or participated in on Facebook : status updates , wall posts , photo tag . Everything is there , enlarged , and unmissable . The further you scroll down , the further into your yesteryear you go . Months and old age speed by — your first roomy , college commencement , your 21st birthday — and then , the twenty-four hour period you were born . If anything ’s miss , you’re able to manually add “ life events ” to the tilt ( marriages , prize , graduations ) , making it as plenteous , accurate — and creepy — as you ’d like . The more work you put in , the more amazingly provide with yourself Timeline becomes .
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Facebook Timeline is adequate to of triggering touching emotional responses . Not just , Ugh , I ca n’t stand that bozo , which is the common . But watching my life literally scroll before my eyes is something I ’d never seen before . Facebook ’s always been the nostalgic ’s mysterious cakehole , but now it does n’t feel like you ’re delve for bit of opinion — Facebook ’s organized it for you , and presented it resplendently . If the old Facebook was a shoebox of polaroids and cheap memento string together with ratty racy and white yarn , Timeline is a leather - recoil , high resolution pic record album for your mantle .
It ’s easy to move around the Facebook - transposed version of your lifetime . well-off to share what you want , revisit the things you loved , even the thing that kind of sucked , and think about how glad you are to not be a college starter anymore . And it ’s a complete pleasure to gaze at . The revamped “ cover image ” atop your profile is a beautiful eCountenance , with all the rest of your biography summarized neatly below . Facebook no longer feel like a lean of musty JPEGs and school text indorsement — it feels like a monument to yourself , and to how incredibly far you ’ve come .
For a party in the line of work of celebrating the ego , this is the deification of the self . Put on your laurels , and stare at a million version of the kid you used to be .
No Like
There are unusual lapse in the Timeline Museum of the Self . It ’s still in pre - release , so it ’s potential to chalk all of this up to bugs .
But why are giant clump of tagged photos vacant in certain month of my life ? I fuck they ’re there — I can view them in the standard photo browser app . Why are certain areas dominated by my entrant twelvemonth girlfriend ? I know I was talking to other people . Right ? This strikes me as the symptoms of a screwy algorithm , but until then , it detract from the time tour .
There ’s also a certain component of lost control in Timeline . The old Facebook was uncomplicated to the point of sterility . It was segmented . It was ascetic . Here are your photos . If it was an orderly orchard before , now it ’s a yield salad . Timeline ’s a mix of everything — everything . That ’s in the end its chastity , but for those who wish the purchase order the quondam design , anxiousness floor might peak . Timeline is a lilliputian messy — but hey , so ’s life-time .
Should I Use This ?
Unless you want to bail on Facebook , you do n’t have a choice . In the come calendar week , it ’ll be pushed across the integral net uniformly . The question is , do you require to stay onboard , given the focal point Facebook ’s moving ? Timeline is bang-up , but fallible . It ’ll get better . Still , the fundamental interrogative sentence remains : Do you want to funnel in the function of your life it has n’t allow already ? Do you want it to transcribe all the songs you ’ll listen to , the eating house you ’ll detest , the “ sickness you ’ll overcome ” ( an actual , freaky issue selection ) ? If the whimsey of the digitized self pleases you , Facebook is your best Modern altar .
If you find it depressing , demeaning , and superficial , then frankly , you should turn it off now . Zuckerberg want Facebook to down and digest the existence , using your life upshot as its nutrient , the experiential feces left behind fertilizing a in high spirits settlement , pristine Timeline . His appetite ’s only going to grow — the head is if you ’ll enjoy dining with him .
The reply ought to be yes . Timeline is an tremendous leap for societal networking per se , and an invaluably clear testament to what humans are make themselves every day . It ’s exciting , consoling , and well-disposed . Timeline is you .
you could keep up with Sam Biddle , the writer of this post , onTwitter , Facebook , orGoogle+ .
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