Facebook Announces Timeline

Posted by Amanda Walsh

Facebook recently announced a new feature on users' profiles called Timeline. They describe it as “a collection of all the top photos, posts and apps that help tell your story.”

Timeline will put all of your activity and updates into one place on your Facebook profile. At first, I thought it was a neat idea to be able to chronicle your life with photos and status updates. You can go back to any year of your life and fill in your timeline with events that you may not have documented. Then, I thought about the early adopters of Facebook, like myself, who joined the platform way back when it was only open to college students.

Facebook also announced the ability to integrate apps into a Timeline. The apps allow users to see what music their friends are listening to via Spotify, or what TV show they are watching via Netflix.

With recruiters and HR managers using social media platforms like Facebook to peek into prospective job candidates’ lives, many users scramble to hide status updates or bury old photos. I wonder how Timeline will impact job seekers, or even professionals in the workplace.

Maybe some people prefer to leave photos and status updates in the past. I’m anxious to see how Facebook will handle the privacy matters surrounding this new feature. One user commented on the announcement that the change could create a spike in identity theft and that it seems to be reminiscent of the book, A Brave New World.

All of these updates will have implications for how users interact on the platform. What do you think? More importantly, will this have implications for companies who use Facebook in a business capacity?

Timeline won’t be available for a few weeks, but users can sign up for it here: https://www.facebook.com/about/timeline