Facebook timeline - managing our digital memories?

Thinking about the amount of content we upload to social networking sites, have you ever thought about what you will do with your Facebook account in years to come?  Will it act as a 'digital scrapbook' to be passed on to the next generation or will we abandon or even delete the Facebook pages that we have spent so long creating and adding to (I know, how could I make such a suggestion?!).  There is always the possibility that Facebook will be overtaken by a new wave of social networking platforms, but undeniably, Facebook is the most prolific platform of our generation in terms of the creation of an online social identity.

What is it?

Cue Facebook Timeline.  A move by the social networking giant to further distinguish itself from potential rivals Twitter and Google+.  Timeline is hailed as being more than just a chronological diary of social activity.  First announced in September this year, it was described as "an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect all your best moments in a single place".

An algorithm is used to pull uploaded content together including photos, status updates and event 'likes' and display them on a chronological timeline. 

As far as I can see, the 'average' user can now use Timeline by visiting the Introducing Timeline page and clicking on ‘Get Timeline’.  Facebook had already given some of its 'savvy' users in New Zealand access to Timeline in what was perhaps a bid to allow these seasoned users to tutor the 'newbies' on how it works – as well as generating publicity, of course.  Up until this week, the majority of users could only go to the ‘Introducing Timeline’ Facebook page and click on the ‘Sign up’ button.

The pros

Some feedback from other users of Timeline suggests that it may make computers run slowly, though many who have used it, including myself, are happy with the new format.  The content display makes for a more engaging experience, the ‘Cover’ allows users to further stamp their identity on their page, content is broken up into clear sections and it’s now easier to navigate back to earlier content and view the things we have uploaded.

The cons

Privacy

What I don’t like however, is the lack of privacy available to me if I upload Cover photos.  If I go in to my albums, hovering over the globe icon at the bottom right hand side of the Cover photos album,  ‘Cover photos are public’ is stated.  Users will struggle to find this information and it’s not made clear that all Facebook users will now see the (very large) image you have uploaded as your cover photo.  They will be able to see this in addition to your profile photo.  What I perhaps find so intrusive is the size of this image in that people I don’t know or that I don’t want to give access to my profile, can clearly see not only my current Cover photo, but my whole album of Cover photos.

Control

Facebook decides how the content is organised and there doesn’t appear to be any option for me to edit the way it is displayed on my timeline, for example, which photos are given prominence over others. 

Though not immediately obvious, when clicking on the years i.e. 2010 or 2011 outlined in the links list on the right hand side of my Timeline view I am given a dropdown option at the top of my page to keep ‘highlights’ selected or I can opt to view ‘all stories’.  The highlights option is only available when clicking on the year links, though not when clicking on months. This initially caused me some confusion, since I remembered seeing a ‘highlights’ option though was unsure where to find this since I was in the month display at the point that I was looking for it.

Will it succeed?

The Timeline display will apparently become the default profile display for all users, though it's not entirely clear when this will happen.  The tagline on the ‘Introducing Timeline’ Facebook page, ‘Tell your life story with a new kind of profile’, does support this idea of a change but does not make it clear whether it will always be optional or eventually mandatory.  I anticipate some resistance to this change within Facebook, though this is a typical response when users are forced to learn about new features or the layout of information changes within a site that they have become comfortable with.  This is further emphasised because Facebook holds a significant amount of users’ personal information and content.

What's interesting though, is a number of companies that have offered a service to pull together users social content into a timeline display have existed for quite some time.  One in particular that I have been aware of is Memolane.  Using this service, users can pull together content from Twitter, Facebook, Picasa, Flikr, Instagram and Youtube (to name but a few) into a timeline format.  From here, users can then invite friends to view or edit / add to this content.  This makes not only a more eclectic timeline than the Facebook offering appears to be, but also a more collaborative experience.

So while the Facebook Timeline is not a new concept, due to the sheer volume of its existing customer base and the amount of content users have uploaded on to the site, it's likely to become one of the most popular platforms for aggregating content in this way.  The new timeline display is likely to encourage interaction amongst users that may not have communicated in a while.  Overall, I think it’s a nice feature and provides a more interesting display of uploaded content.