When Facebook invaded dorm room monitors in 2005, it did so by changing the way we think about the internet. Facebook gave us something we didn’t know we wanted.
Be prepared, it is about to happen again.
Back in 2005, MySpace was the predominant social networking option. MySpace was essentially the same as Facebook, save for one aspect: on MySpace, you could choose a username. On Facebook, your username was your name. This was revolutionary, and it made Facebook the monolith it is today.
Anonymity is still available on most dark corners of the web. Facebook is constantly adding and modifying features that will allow users the privacy they desire, while keeping the site trendy and useful.
The trend seems to be that vociferous users bemoan the changes, but soon the usefulness becomes apparent and the old layout is relegated to history, likely forgotten by all.
Facebook has forever been a forward-looking medium. Allowing users to make plans via Message, Event and Wall Post.
For the first time, the site is asking its users to look back. The new Profile page, dubbed the ‘Timeline’, allows users to view posts that are sorted by month and year. A complicated algorithm determines what posts are featured.
Additionally, you can now post Life Events, including stories and pictures, beginning with your birth. The categories that you can post on past dates on this new scrapbook-like Profile page include: Work and Education, Family and Relationships, Living, Health and Wellness and Milestones and Experiences.
What should emerge is something more meaningful than the day-to-day minutia of an individual life.
Why do we write? Why do we record video? Why do we collect?
We do these things, in part, to leave something here, to preserve a piece of ourselves, hoping someday someone will care enough to look for it.
These significant changes to the Profile page allow users to look at their lives from a vantage point that was impossible but to the most avid journaler.
The best part is all you have to do is what you always do, post things to Facebook and when you want to take a trip down memory lane, do it.
We didn’t ask for this feature, and I am sure some people will say they don‘t care for it. But the events, the moments in our lives, they’re really all we have. And if memories are even the least bit important to you, the enhancing ability of this new profile layout is staggeringly invaluable.
And who knows, maybe someday, after you are long gone, your great-grandchildren will find your page, and in that moment, all your moments still matter…
The new Profile page will be rolled out this month, if you want to get it today, instructions are here:
Business Insider
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