The Facebook Timeline is the nearest thing I’ve seen to a digital identity (and it’s creepy as hell)

As an application developer, I have advance access to the Facebook Timeline that Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday. Here it is:

Facebook timeline: main

At first glance, it’s a rather beautiful replacement for the social media profiles we’ve been using since forever. Rather than simply listing your latest content, the timeline allows any visitor to browse your life, literally from birth to the present day. (If you scroll down to the bottom, Facebook prompts you to add a baby photo. Aww.)

This definitely changes the paradigm for social media profiles. As Channel 4 News’s Benjamin Cohen says:

It’s interesting from a personal perspective to look back at the past five years but there’s so much that I wouldn’t want someone else to be reading. It seems like too much information about me for people to be able to discover. But today, I would rather spend my time at Daisy Slots making money. While it’s been possible for people to access my photographs from years ago, in a sense they were out of context. Now you can see context because of the posts I made myself and those made by my friends on my wall.

Facebook allows you to connect with an increasing number of sites and applications using your Facebook identity. You can write documents, share what you’re reading, play games like agen sbobet, poker and gambling online, and so on – and for most people, this has been a welcome feature. Everything is controlled from one place, with one username and password, and it’s easier than OpenID. Great!

Facebook timeline: 2006Except now, when someone clicks through from anywhere on the web that uses Facebook Connect to see your profile, they’ll really see you: your life in context. It’s a contextual identity; something you won’t get from a real name, a passport, an ID card, or even a DNA profile. Whereas previously profiles were a collection of hand-picked pieces of information coupled with some things you’d shared recently, now you’ll see wedding photos, pictures of drunken nights on the town four years ago, and perhaps a status update you made when you were hurt and upset after something you’ve long forgotten that happened in 2006 – mixed up with more professional status updates and links, of course.

On one level, it’s brilliant. On another, it’s undeniably, pervasively creepy, to a level we’ve hitherto been unprepared for in human society. These things are designed to be forgotten, but with the Facebook Timeline, much of your life is all but indelible, published front and center until you go through each item individually and hide or delete it.

Nobody’s forced to use Facebook, of course, although for many it’s pretty much a mandatory part of the social experience. What worries me is the trend of radical transparency and social context throughout the web software industry, where it’s expected that everyone will share their lives unless they’ve got something to hide. On the surface, for white males like me living in California, there’s a lot to be said for this on an individual level; don’t lie, be up-front, wear your intentions and motivations on your sleeve. But ultimately the decision about what to share has to be the individual’s – if you don’t feel like sharing something, don’t. Radically transparent interfaces are designed in a way that leads to a kind of peer pressure for disclosure: everyone else is sharing information about A, B and C, so why are you being so evasive?

Furthermore, there’s something particularly jarring about squeezing emotional life events into a social database. Facebook has become a social operating system. Where “social” means “sharing pages, files and resources through electronic means,” that’s great: a much-needed step forward. Where it refers to relationships between human beings, it’s not required, and the idea of placing these things into neat, centrally-defined categories is distasteful.

Facebook Timeline: lost a loved one?

The case for allowing users to control not just their digital identities, but the platform that defines and stores their digital identities, is stronger than ever.

Update: I was quoted about the Facebook Timeline in the New York Times.

Comments

48 responses to “The Facebook Timeline is the nearest thing I’ve seen to a digital identity (and it’s creepy as hell)”

  1. Katie Piatt Avatar

    “Lost a Loved One”. I agree that’s pushing even my comfort levels of sharing. Was talking to someone this week about how we share the happy, fun stuff as a rule – especially on Facebook.

  2. Anon Avatar
    Anon

    Or you can just set your privacy settings up such that your “digital DNA” says nothing about you. Come on people….

  3. ChrisG Avatar
    ChrisG

    Google could use this angle for Google+ and say they allow individual control of everything you share. I believe this will turn into a disaster for Facebook ultimately, and Google should take advantage of that and promote their approach hard.

  4. Cat Avatar
    Cat

    Came here to say the same thing: set your profile to private, done.

  5. benwierd Avatar
    benwierd

    Same as others. Seems you can write a blog post yet you cannot take the time to read Facebook help section on hiding your Timeline from public.

    The Facebook Timeline is the nearest thing I’ve seen to a digital identity (and it’s creepy as hell [only to retarded ones who set their privacy to public])

    #FAIL

  6. Zob Avatar
    Zob

    Yeah right, and if one day they decide to remove part of the privacy feature you’ll end up with sharing your entire life with everybody else. Facebook is the worst of the internet. People lose jobs because they did not think before sharing their ideas or you are not selected for a job because your social profile is not complete enough. Trying to make the web social is stupid. Have you ever seen how people behave differently when they are on the phone vs in person? That’s the same with Facebook and other social medias, it’s impersonal.

  7. Jessica Avatar

    Hey! I just saw the video last night about this- I love the timeline- & the profile layout is fantastic! A lot of people complain about the Ticker consistently breaching people’s privacy but I think that’s the point- people love gossip! Now on the business side, these Top 10 Features of FB can be very beneficial check it out: https://sempow.com/use-facebook-for-business/

  8. Dan Avatar

    I have to agree with calling this a digital identity crisis. I also wrote about this trend a while back on my own blog. Between Google and Facebook, it looks like things have only just begun..
    http://businesstechnologyanalyst.com/2010/01/the-looming-battle-for-the-one-password-to-rule-them-all/

  9. Peter Avatar
    Peter

    Anyone who thinks they can just change their privacy settings is extremely optimistic. Maybe they do not realize that Facebook reserves the right to change what they show, and to whom, at the drop of a hat, without your permission. That’s assuming the do an adequate job of protecting the data from thieves, and assuming you don’t accidentally give all your data to the authors of any of the apps you have enabled. Zuckerberg and crew have turned on creepy features in the past. Usually they turn them off if the protest is too loud (remember beacon?), but they are not required to do so. Nor are they required to delete your info if you choose to leave.

  10. MJM Avatar
    MJM

    Facebook is just another unaccountable communication intermediary; zuckerberg does not care about you, or anyone else on facebook. Ultimately every person on facebook is a number stored in a database, with that binary code that you are goes with it your life, your actions, your mistakes, what you ate for breakfast, what you’re buying, where you live, where you go to school, your phone number, your email addresses, our instant messenger accounts, who knows you, who you know, where you’re going, where’ve you been. Facebook is NOT to be trusted with this information, we are all simply data(and money) for zuckerberg to store and sell to marketing companies; could you imagine this information in the wrong hands? We are already on the fast track of destroying privacy; why stream line it with facebook? Facebook is a mask of cute layout hiding sean parkers, mark zuckerbergs, and others true intentions = more money and power. There is not trust at facebook(look at how zuckerberg screwed over so many people just to get facebook going) Just remember that in the end what is this all for? Facebook increases narcissim, individual social dissolusion, and is simply a distraction in our daily lives. Before commiting your ENTIRE essence of being to facebook, think hard, think real hard, dont be a facebook fool!

  11. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    To those that are trying to be smart by pointing out it’s optional: thanks, we know, that’s not what we need to discuss. We need to discuss _what_ we want to share and _how_ we want to share it.

    I recently heard about ‘constantly sharing everything’ on Facebook, instead of selectively sharing. That sucks, because it mostly benefits Facebook and not you. If you don’t care or are too stupid to care and understand, at least be smart enough to demand money from Facebook for every thing you put on it. It has immense value, and you are all giving it away for free!

  12. MJM Avatar
    MJM

    http://public.numair.com/2011_fbfool.html

    everyone should read that, wonderful article and sheds light on what facebook and zuckerberg really are! power hungry, narcissistic, untrustworthy.

  13. Mike G Avatar
    Mike G

    Why anyone would 1. open their lives up so that every single detail is ‘archived’ on Facebook an 2. would trust Facebook to keep their information private EVEN if you ‘set your profile to private, done’ is beyond me. Facebook users: YOU are not the customer here. You are the PRODUCT. The only reason FB is adding this functionality is to take data mining, segmentation and targeted marketing to a new level of dumbassery.

  14. rocknrolla Avatar
    rocknrolla

    @MJM you watched the Social Network a bit too many times … everyone at the top power hungry? yes? right? Let’s hate every CEO and board member in every company who became powerful because that is not successful. Steve Jobs/ Bill Gates/Carol Bartz are power hungry, narcissistic, untrustworthy. My god, let’s hire someone who will never take risks in their life. Let’s see where that gets us.

    Sean Parker? Are you serious… when was the last time he made a decision. Go back to watching fanatical bullshit movies. Lucky for you that Numair makes sense.

    @Mike no shit sherlock…. if it is optional why are people bitching about it? derp derp. We ask money from Facebook? You are the stupid one sir. The amount of free storage, organization and easy friend-finding abilities (*cough* *cough* stalking) of your long lost high school gf who dumped you are amazing. No more keeping boxes full of photos and diaries. Share whatever you want, its your brain use it for christ sake. Any consequence is your fault no one else.

    @Peter Ah, someone worthy of supporting the other side. Good strong paragraph. It is very true the data could just vanish or explode out into the public. Oh well. Maybe you should I dunno, delete the shit you dont want people to see, and backup the shit you want??? But hey! That’s the gamble. Why? Because we dont pay jack shit. When you start paying, your argument will be rock solid. Every mofo wants the best stuff for free and the highest quality.

  15. Evelyn Castillo-Bach Avatar

    Thank you for this reflective and insightful article. There is a viable alternative to Facebook for people who really value their privacy and want to connect in private with the people who matter in their lives: UmeNow.com.

    I am the founder of UmeNow.com . We are not in a bear hug with Goldman Sachs. We are a grassroots company funded by the subscriptions of ordinary people who value independence, integrity, and total ownership and control of their data.

    UmeNow.com is the first and only ad-free social network in the world totally focused on privacy. No Ads. Only People. Third party apps and games are banned since they are the back door to extracting large quantities of private information, even when you yourself don’t use them but your friends do.

    UmeNow.com is an ethical company that does not monetize private information. We rely only on our member’s subscriptions. The basic membership is .20 cents a day or $6.00 / month – less if you select the group subscription that allows you to add 10 people for $100.00/year. If you don’t think communicating in private is worth that to you — then Facebook and Google+ was made for you.

    UmeNow.com was created for people who love technology but also love their privacy. UmeNow.com will not appeal to the voyeur, snoops, or people who like to peek into other people’s lives. It will not appeal to data miners and data collectors. And as much as I love and depend on my team of developers, it won’t appeal to them either because there is no money to be made in building third party apps and games. It will definitely not appeal to the pundits or anyone who has something to sell .

    Facebook does what it does very well, provided you like exposing your life or devoting a lot of time to keeping up with Facebook’s default settings that always seem to favor exposing oneself. Google+ is the mother ship of data collection. It also does what it does very well. But Google+ is an identification verification service. That’s not my description. That distinction belongs to Google’s chief Eric Schmidt.

    I have been widely quoted as saying that Facebook is a data collection company that also let’s you connect with your friends. It’s whole reason for existing, in my view, is to also allow just about anybody and thousands of companies to gain access to your life information. Facebook privacy settings, default settings, and settings that undo settings are legendary. It’s not always apparent who can gain access to what. With these new features described in this article and elsewhere, the data collection scheme is just more elaborate albeit more boastful.

    UmeNow is the opposite of everything Facebook represents. I say that “Free is Not Free. if it’s free you are the product.”

    UmeNow is designed and built for people who are not into exposing their private lives to the world. If you value communicating in private with the important people in you life, then UmeNow.com is perfect.

  16. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    Of course, there’s nothing to say that you can’t LIE on your social profile…birthdates, relationships, etc. I haven’t put information into their system for precisely these reasons. I will be removing some of the other information from it as I go along.

  17. Devy Avatar
    Devy

    It’s as simple as this: if you want your personal privacy online, don’t go online! If you want your privacy from facebook, cancel your account! Whatever you put their, regardless settings, it is on show.

  18. Andrew Avatar
    Andrew

    its not creepy. share what you want. im not into FB anymore. social overload. creepy is showing ads against your email content.

  19. Trevor Gerzen Avatar

    Everything that’s there is there because you put it there. There’s no new content. You have been able to see all of the same photos, they send announcements about privacy changes, albeit sometimes after they’ve made the change and every time they’ve made a change I’ve made sure to read about the changes. Then, I decide what I want to do with them. So far nothing has come up on Facebook that has made me feel like they know too much because everything they know about me I’VE TOLD THEM.

    Ever since I realized that lots of other people can and will see things I put out there I decided to think before posting. Do I really need to say this or post this picture? It’s kind of like a tattoo when you think about it. Really, think before you post…

  20. MJM Avatar
    MJM

    @rocknrolla

    I suggest you do some research into the history of facebook; while i have seen “the social network” I have also done extensive reading and the movie is very accurate. Your rather poorly deducted blab about hating CEOs has nothing to do with what i’m saying; the topic is facebook, mark zuckerberg, and about the ethical behavior of gaining access to 500+ million people and having unprescidented manipulation and insight into ones life. The question is: What are positive/negative affects of facebook? and, What are the true intentions of those pulling the strings? Of course I know sean parker hasnt been at facebook for sometime, but mark zuckerberg was impacted heavily by him. Parker helped direct facebook and zuckerbergs way of thinking, and therefore to this day still impacts facebook indirectly. Unfortunatly in the United States CEOs have a pretty bad rep. and thats not for no reason; capitalism up to this point values a dollar over human quality of life and that IS a direct result of CEO’s. But do I hate CEO’s? NO! I hate people that value financial gain and power over doing the right thing and having morals, doesnt matter if you’re a CEO or not. I’m an electronic engineer(student still) so I have gained instances of inspiration from facebook as to what I would like to do in the future, but in my opinion facebook does value its subcribers more like a succulent peice of meat ready to be cooked rather than valued customers. All we can do is wait and see what the future holds for facebook/zuckerberg and the people that it has sucked in; I just refuse to be a peice of binary code that zuckerberg analyzes and sells to the highest bidder.

  21. Jonathan Avatar
    Jonathan

    Just because I can “opt out” doesn’t mean the data isn’t there to be perused for years. I’m really, for the first time, thinking about deletion as a viable option. This “social os” concept is the gradual erosion of personal privacy.

    Liberty is the heart and soul of freedom. Choosing your own action, without interference from a company or government, is the heart of liberty. Every piece of data collected – whether it be tracking my movement, who I know, or what I’m up to – could potentially constrict my potential for liberty by making this information available to parties I do not wish to have access to said information.

    Privacy is the notion that corporations or government won’t intrude on my activities, if I intend to be private. Intercepting my phone calls or email has laws protecting it, but Facebook lacks any protections for personal information, and has a fundamentally profiteering motive.

    I have a right to privacy, and I think Facebook and platforms like it could lead to a gradual suspension of the legal concept of liberty based on individualism and personal privacy.

  22. Stewart Avatar
    Stewart

    “Nobody’s forced to use Facebook, of course, although for many it’s pretty much a mandatory part of the social experience.”
    What?

  23. Steve Avatar
    Steve

    Mandatory?

    For sheep, maybe…

  24. Anon4fun Avatar
    Anon4fun

    “Facebook Timeline” a.k.a. “Stalker’s Helper” a.k.a. “Big Brother’s Do-It-Yourself Profiler”

  25. mike z Avatar

    the main thing to me is that people have been antsy about google sharing personal info.. while facebook flat out says they will basically fillet you online guts hanging open for all to see and yes we will jam relevant content into the chasm. tailor ads and things to my needs? ok. rectal exam on my homepage? not so much

  26. Michael Moore-Jones Avatar

    I agree – it’s creepy. But Facebook is known for doing things that creep people out, but they then eventually get used to. And I wrote about why this is probably the smartest thing, and biggest change, Facebook has ever made – and it’ll probably lock people in with Facebook forever. http://mmoorejones.com/2011/09/24/five-icons-are-the-most-important-change-facebook-has-ever-made/

  27. Steven Van der Werf Avatar
    Steven Van der Werf

    If I post something on facebook, LJ, G+ or anywhere else, I do not want to have to worry in case a random set of changes is going to expose my writings to people I did not intend to see them. Or for that matter, decide on my behalf that a few years of sensitive information should be slapped together into one big screen of revelation.

    Facebook forces me to worry about that *constantly*. And it’s getting worse. I have responded by not posting to facebook.

    just means a service that could have been useful is now a hassle I choose to avoid. Which, incidentally, is what I thought of it in the years before I gave in and joined.

  28. Steven Van der Werf Avatar
    Steven Van der Werf

    Oh, and Ben:
    I love this site. The layout is perfect, the UI clean and friendly, relatively sparse yet complete.

    well done.

    [I’m viewing on Chromium via ubuntu 11.04 Unity 2D]

  29. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    Although I use facebook for my business, I don’t have a personal profile and don’t need or want one. I keep up with my friends via texting and *gasp* in person. I don’t see what the big deal is, literally nobody is forcing anyone to use facebook or spend all their time sharing things on facebook. Just opt out. It’s not that hard and your life is not goimg to get any worse. You’re just going to miss out on some inanity and the effect of the online narcissistic echo chamber you’re surrounding yourself with.

  30. moo Avatar
    moo

    It looks good, but the UX is horrible.Way to much to see and click on. And two columns with readable content, c’mon…

  31. Kent Avatar
    Kent

    To the people that say you can just “set something to private.” Facebook in the past has introduced new invasions of privacy–I mean, “new features” that defaulted to exposing some aspect of you. I don’t trust them, I certainly don’t trust Zuckerberg, period – and people are fools for laying themselves bare on a digital billboard that could possibly cause them irreparable harm or embarrassment. If a privacy checkbox that might unexpectedly disappear at the whim of Facebook tomorrow makes you feel safe, you need to rethink that.

  32. Mark Deuze Avatar

    since when do well-meaning folks advocate self-censorship as a recipe for personal freedom? by spouting such nonsense like “People lose jobs because they did not think before sharing their ideas or you are not selected for a job because your social profile is not complete enough.” concerns about producing yourself as a commodity, self-branding, and oversharing may be valid, but perhaps bypass a more fundamental point: social networks entice us to create and control a more or less coherent (cf. marketable) version of our individual self. that is the only problem i see here: the collaboratively maintained illusion that we, as individuals, are special and unique (and need to “be ourselves” at all times). the only thing special are the connections we make and maintain with others, with nature, and with technologies. ultimately, that is the hopeful aspect of social media: they show us the power of connections which we squander to promote the mini-narratives of who we (think we) are.

  33. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    I’m not using Facebook, but I might have to open an account one day simply because everyone keeps telling me to. “You don’t have a Facebook profile?” has become part of my daily routine :-). But Timeline is just crazy: if say, a potential employer, browses my profile and finds a few pics of me doing something that they find “inappropriate”, I’ll most definitely lose points with the employer or even the chance to get a job, just because the person reviewing me will remember something negative more than all the good stuff I did (proven by science™).
    The only solution I see is to make my Facebook profile as curated as possible from the start – never sharing anything potentially embarrassing/damaging/inappropriate or even anything that can be taken out of context, and that’s going to take a lot of work, not to mention make my profile look like a liar or a saint’s :-).

  34. Guns Avatar
    Guns

    Facebook is like 1984, only you have a social media site watching your every move. scares the hell out me. A big part of their revenue model is selling info, private and otherwise.. personal will soon be a bad word..

  35. Roses Avatar
    Roses

    I enjoyed this article and comment alot. I watched a video of Mark pitch TIMELINE last week, I couldnt really see where the “new” factor ly. It seems that he has amplified what people didnt like about Facebook, Lack of control of privacy. yes they have the groups feature but this was after users had already accumulated 600 odd friends. I see Google Plus as a way to promote social media(no invites required) but soley on the terms of the user( circles feature). There is no doubt that Google is going to use our information aswell, I just feel like Google is a company I would trust to have my information.

  36. Simon Taylor Avatar

    there is a sequel to the story of fb addiction related here – http://postself.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/fbad/ – being the fb-addict – or fb-artist – depending on how you want to view it – who had, to an obsessive degree, availed herself of every resource fb offers – including those pertaining to the false problem of privacy – this person, then, was courted by an fb-friend in the city of angels who convinced her that her fb-artistry – or fb-addictive behaviour – was actually GENIUS. fb-friend offered to take fb-addict/fb-artist under his wing – and mentor her – in the city of angels. fb-addict/fb-artist has since departed for LA, into then, the arms of a consensus that can put fb at the centre of a world. Identity remade? or identity destroyed?

  37. James Crawford Avatar

    It certainly is creepy but I can’t see it failing.

    I can see the European Union being s stumbling block. We don’t like invasions of personal information. We also don’t like how Facebook is trying to own the web.

  38. salidatious Avatar

    Hey Ben
    I’ve been mulling over this all weekend! I must admit that despite the fact it all looks so pretty, I’m uncomfortable with my life being shared in this way. I’m happy for my friends and family to see my timeline, they’ve been a part of it for the best part of four years but I’m less comfortable with the idea of a newer friend or colleague getting to know me through Facebook rather than in person.
    There are only three remedies I can see: 1. embrace it and get on with it. 2. spend time on privacy settings both now and regularly in the future to ensure I’m only sharing the info I’m comfortable with 3. cull my friends and family to those I’m happy with sharing everything with.
    Haven’t decided which one to choose yet!
    sl

  39. George L. Avatar
    George L.

    I can understand that talking about losing a loved one can be uncomfortable, but this is how news gets spread socially nowadays (in the past it would be phone gossip) and pretty much everybody that posts this kind of stuff online wants to get some sympathy so on the whole this can be positive for people and fill people with nostalgia. I understand peoples concerns about privacy, and can understand why some people see this as creepy, but its just another form of communication. If you don’t want anybody to see something about you online, you can either not post it or be very liberal in your use of the privacy settings or even quit Facebook. Now obviously Facebook is not some benevolent entity that is doing this for charity, they want you to give them data about you and spend as many of your waking hours as possible browsing Facebook so you’ll click on more ads. All of their features are designed to do either one of those two things. This isn’t bad necessarily as long as Facebook doesn’t give away identifying information to advertisers: this can be beneficial because good ads can help out people and even businesses. On the whole, Facebook is rapidly becoming one of the bigger businesses in the world because of how desperate a lot of businesses are to make headway on Facebook. This is such a concern among businesses that an entire industry has cropped up (see http://buyfacebookfansreviews.com for a few dozen examples of companies) that do nothing other than promote Facebook pages to people. This is how big this is. All of these new Facebook features will get some negative press, but when people actually start using them I think they’re going to be a big hit and further accelerate Facebook’s growth. Google+ is still trying to create profiles for businesses and Facebook is just operating on a whole other level.

  40. Facebook Covers Avatar

    My Facebook Timeline is embarrassing. “1665: ‘The Gr8 Plague! LOL!’” I was young, alright?

  41. Rick Avatar
    Rick

    oh my fucking god
    no one cares about any of you in the real world what makes you think mark godammed zuckerberg or anyone on the internet gives a SHIT?

  42. Steven Van der Werf Avatar
    Steven Van der Werf

    @Rick
    you appear to be either missing or completely ignoring one of the core points of this thread:
    Facebook’s desire to scrape and package your entire existence to make it as easy and attractive as possible to sell.

    as in, sell your identity.

    if you’re completely cool with that, go ahead.
    and incidentally, some of us are real people with friends and people who love us.

  43. Rick Avatar
    Rick

    @Steven
    Perhaps I’m just ignorant, Steven, but please, enlighten me as to how and why someone would “sell my identity and existence”. I’ve activated Timeline with developer mode and it seems like nothing more than a mere format change; a different and presumably “unique” way to layout my stories and updates. However, considering the obscene amount of people that are paranoid about this upcoming change, it does make me wonder a bit.

  44. Steven Van der Werf Avatar
    Steven Van der Werf

    @Rick

    sadly, you are. Very much so.

    Selling your identity is how facebook makes money. Lots and lots of money. They have been quite open about this for a very long time. They do this by making it incredibly easy for advertisers and the like to buy packages of user data, which is formed by sniffing your posts and browsing habits. Literally every web page you go to that has a link to Facebook is sending info back to them, saying you’ve been there. Even if you log off.

    How else, exactly, do you think Mark Zuckerburg got to be a multi billionaire?
    he stated early in the birth of facebook that thousands of people had given him personal details, and he was going to sell that info for lots of money. He now has some 500,000,000 doing the very same, often several times a day.

    The Timeline change isn’t exactly going to make it that much easier, it’s just a level of exposure that makes me deeply uncomfortable [I have a long history of mental and emotional instability that I’d rather not have gloriously reproduced for all passing visitors]. What it has mostly done is highlight just how much Facebook knows, and how much control they have over the display of that knowledge.

    incidentally, Google do something similar but are [apparently] less invasive about it. Or something. That is why facebook and Android are both ‘free’. Much easier to get farming tools into people’s hands when they can simply take them.

    by contrast, MS wants to sell you software licenses [the XBox remains a loss leader], Apple wants to sell you premium hardware [making money out of software is a whole new game for them. The App store success was a *huge* surprise to Apple, as it was intended to entice iDevice sales rather than be a revenue stream in itself]

  45. C Vesh Avatar
    C Vesh

    I deleted my account. I never really wanted or liked it in the first place, but went ahead almost a year ago and made an account because I moved, and I was sick of hearing “you don’t have facebook?!!?! gasp!!!”. I tried to keep it pretty minimal, and it almost seems like people want to socialize with you LESS if you’re not commenting constantly on their stupid updates and wall posts. I tried to keep most of my communication down to private messages, but it seems like not too many people were interested in doing that, yet these same people would constantly write idiotic posts on their or others walls. It’s just a big “look at me” fest, and it brings out the narcissist in people. Everyone thinks they are so sexy/clever/witty/funny/charming/whatever…

    Seriously people, why is this a necessary part of your life? Life was fine before it, will be fine without it. It’s not like we don’t have cell phones with texting, you still have messenger programs, email…. it’s not like you’d be going back to the ol’ days where you had to send paper mail or call someone on a landline. It just seems like wayyy too much information is being put out there, and my biggest grip is everyone wants the world to see how “special” they are. Well guess what Sally, you don’t look that good in real life, your kids are not cute, your “witty” comment was copied from someone else, and everyone knows what a big whore you are!! So done with this crap, I like having a semi anonymous life… even if it means people will find me strange because god forbid, I don’t obsess over this retarded web site. Kinda disappointed that I caved in and made an account in the first place…

  46. Ayesha Avatar
    Ayesha

    Thanks for sharing Facebook is forever changing features and inventing new add ons. We all complain about the changes at first but then we adapt ourselves to them, because we enjoy being on Facebook. Here’s a link to another article I came across about the facebook timeline that might interest you guys: http://www.pha-media.com/digital-pr-blog/2011/10/04/the-new-generation-of-facebook-campaigns…/

  47. MZ Avatar
    MZ

    Hate the Timeline. Hate it! I will not use it until they force it. Then, I may very well quit using FB.

  48. PissedFailbooker Avatar
    PissedFailbooker

    OK…. Like a lot of you I just pulled a homer and clicked a link with a
    cool pick and got sucked into the timeline… THERE IS HOPE… Dont get
    me wrong, this is only a band-aid and not a revert back to old Facebook
    but its better than nothing… Install the “User Agent Switcher” add-on
    from within the Firefox add-on screen. (Firefox user only as far as I
    know). Once the add-on is installed go to the menu bar at the top and
    click tools. Click on the tab labeled “Default User Agent” with the
    arrow next to it. The “Default User Agent” tab will expand and give you
    more options. Select Internet Explorer and then version 7 (or older).
    Different browsers interact with websites differently. FACEBOOK TIMELINE
    DOES NOT WORK WITH INTERNET EXPLORER 7 OR OLDER.. SO this add on tells
    Failbook that your surfing from an browser version that is not supported
    by timeline and timeline will not load. 

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