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ladychicago
member
F.acebook Timeline? Help me understand.
ladychicago
member
Ok, so what is the big deal? I just tried to preview my profile in the Timeline format, and I don't get it. Aside from the new layout and I guess the ability to go back to a certain year or month to look at old stuff...what's different? When I make the change, what should I be sure to look at or care about? Seems like a lot of people are up in arms over it so I feel like I am missing something.
And does FB automatically mark certain status updates as "life events?" or as somehow more important than others? Or would I have to go through and add those myself if I wanted them on my profile?
Anyways, whatever you guys did or will do would be interesting to know, because I don't have time at the moment to figure it out myself but I know the change will be mandatory soon. So help! 
Brought to you by IVF, ICSI, limited fert, and oocyte cryopreservation.
Because we're fancy like that.
Because we're fancy like that.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: F.acebook Timeline? Help me understand.
To be honest, I am not sure why people are making a stink over it. You can still have security settings enabled that only allows friends to view your timeline. Or no one at all if you care that much.
I switched to the timeline last week and I kind of like it. I went back to see old posts of mine when I made the FB announcement of my pregnancy - it was cool.
As for life events - I believe you mark those yourself. You can go back to the date of your wedding (even if you were not on FB then - or it didn't exist) and add wedding pics, etc. I have not gone that far into it, but know somepeople who have.
After 7 years trying to concieve, 3 failed IUIs and 2 failed IVFs, my third IVF was a success!
My Christmas baby turned into a turkey bird! Dillon Richard was born at 34 weeks, 5 days on November 28, 2009 after 10 weeks on bedrest for preeclampsia.
<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v705/arriinthere/PJ/?action=view
Here's what I don't like:
- Your cover photo is automatically public, as are all photos you add to that "album" that means no matter what your settings are your friends, their friends and their friends and anyone that sees your profile (protected or not) can see that picture. It also means anyone can share that picture on their own wall. So, for example, my MIL was able to share my cover photo of my kids. Of course, her privacy settings are not as high as mine and who knows who got to see that picture. It felt like a violation of my privacy.
- Every single post/status update that you've ever written is now available for all of your friends to review (unless you change it so that your timeline is blank by either deleting each post one by one -- time consuming -- or by changing the audience for all pasts posts, thereby removing everything from sight). I stand issue with this because I do not want my IL's and my husband's family to be able to see stuff that I posted when I was 24 and in grad school BEFORE we were married and before I was friends with them. Or really any of my coworkers, etc. either. That's a lot of info, and I don't think most people are aware of how large their social media footprint really is.
- Based on random information you've given facebook (i.e. who your siblings are, your education, etc.) it will "intuitively" put when certain events happened on your timeline. So for example, it put my siblings births (in the 80s) on my timeline. It put my wedding on my timeline (in four different places, each place was incorrect) and other life events that I frankly don't feel like are anyone's business.
- Lastly, with the update Facebook automatically resets all of your privacy settings to the lowest possible - WITHOUT TELLING YOU IT IS DOING SO. You have to manually go back and reupdate your privacy settings. That to me is fishy and plain wrong.
It is a very invasive update that strips a lot of basic privacy measures that were previously in place. If all you have on your FB is close friends and family, then it probably won't matter. But if you're like me and are friends with the occasional colleague, some extended family, and a few random people from high school that you haven't seen in 15 years, etc. then it can feel a little icky.
and here's a cute article that kind of sums it up:
https://theandrewmiller.com/facebook-timeline-history-haunts-us/
"While I understand the concerns of the people, I enjoy the Timeline profile. I like it better at age 27 than I would have at age 21, but in a few years, it?ll be cool to read back on how Beth and I met each other, the awkward Facebook flirting, the moving to Portland, the moving back from Portland, the getting a dog, the getting engaged and getting married. Timeline is all about capturing the moments. (Jesus, what am I? A Canon commercial?)
Unfortunately, it?s also about digging up long-hidden messages should people choose to use it for evil. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has always poo-pooed the value of privacy, claiming its value is little and its future it bleak. That?s fine, so long as we know up front. Timeline profiles, which become the new standard on Thursday, will receive the largest outcry in Facebook?s history, because it invites people to our past. People whom, at the time, were never within Facebook?s context. Nana wasn?t supposed to be here. Bosses didn?t need Facebook ? they had PowerPoint. Our parents had email and that seemed like enough.Apparently not."
After 7 years trying to concieve, 3 failed IUIs and 2 failed IVFs, my third IVF was a success!
My Christmas baby turned into a turkey bird! Dillon Richard was born at 34 weeks, 5 days on November 28, 2009 after 10 weeks on bedrest for preeclampsia.
<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v705/arriinthere/PJ/?action=view
The people that can see my status updates from 2005 now are not the same people I was friends with in 2005. And likewise the people that I was friends with in 2005 aren't even FB friends now (at least not most of them). Imagine everything you did in college being out there for the world to see, even if it isn't horrible stuff, who wants their thoughts and ideas from when they were 20 something floating out there for people to read 10 years later?
As I said, I didn't have my inlaws (and all of my husband's aunts/uncles/cousins) on my FB then and it was never something that I thought "old people" would be joining. When I joined FB it was for college kids keeping in touch with other college kids.
You should check your timeline again. My brother's birth and that kind of stuff was just recently added. I was able to easily delete it. Perhaps that didn't show up on your feed because you didn't establish sibling relationships through FB? My brother had sent me a family request labeling me as his sister and that's what added him to my timeline...
The privacy thing is just annoying -- and I do think they should explain it to you when they make changes (like, send out a mass e-mail or something), because I always forget that the settings change automatically.
I can see why people would be upset about having alll of their posts accessible to their current friends, if, say, you joined in college and only had your college buddies as FB friends at the time. For me, though, I never post anything that I would worry about my mom, MIL, or boss reading, so I think it is fun to look back at old posts.
Why not go back and cleanse old posts? Everyone should be checking what the internet as a whole knows about them on a regular basis and sanitize accordingly. Employers, credit card agencies, etc. are looking for you that way: why not be proactive and know what they're seeing so there are no surprises? Same with your FB posts, even if public. If 3 months later you think "that's probably not something I want people to see", make sure to go back and delete it.
I'm not saying that FB frequent re-sets of privacy settings is fine. It's certainly not. But I can't complain about someone seeing something they shouldn't have, when I made it possible for them to do so.
Photo by Zemya Photography
I did, it took me about 15 hours to go through and delete everything from before 2010, but I did it at night after the babies went to bed over the course of a week. Some of it was even harmless stuff, but I just don't like being able to dig back that far. I'm sure that's a me thing and not an everyone thing!
Because we're fancy like that.
I didnt join FB until 2006 (i think) and it was after i was married and several years out of college. Nothing on there i am worried about. I know the cover pic is public but so is your profile pic so i dont see the difference. My brother's b-day was added to my timeline but i dont see what the big deal is, he is my brother. I have added life events from before FB was around and i like to be able to easily pull them up.
Correction: i joined july 2007
The only thing I'm concerned about is my comments on other peoples posts and so far I haven't found a good way to scrub those. So my drunk facebooking will eventually come back to haunt me.
But I was in my mid-30s and already married when I joined FB so I have a very different FB profile than someone who joined it when it was only open to college kids. I feel bad for that group of folks and yes, I think they should scrub, scrub, scrub.
Or FB could get smart and allow you to block out certain years from the timeline function. I could see that as useful even going forward (imagine H and I were to get divorced, I'd probably want to block out that year eventually just so I didn't have to relive it every year after).