If you're anything like me, Mark Zuckerberg probably gave you a bit of a scare in the last week.
A few months ago, Zuckerberg, along with those ever-creative folks over at Facebook, introduced a new feature called Timeline that'll be going live on all profiles on Dec. 25.
However, as I've come to realize, "Timeline" is a fancy pants, Silicon-Valley way of saying "All-The-Sh!t-You-May-Or-May-Not-Want-To-Relive-From-The-Past-Five-to-Seven-Years-Of-Your-Life".
You see, Timeline basically regurgitates all of your old posts, comments, and photos in a convenient, scrolling timeline (duh) beneath your main profile heading information. (If you want a cool, hip FB-official explanation of the feature, you can read more about Timeline here.) Although all of that junk has always been available to view (by clicking on "view older posts" at the bottom of a user's profile repeatedly), it's now made much more convenient to searching eyes.
My husband, who's actually one of the most Facebook-phobic people I know - hardly ever posting a single update, the horror! - pointed out this latest FB rollout to me last week.
And that's when I almost went into early labor.
Immediately, I started Googling the Internetz to find out just how Timeline would operate and, more importantly, how I could hide/delete/erase from eternity all of the embarrassing crap I used to post.
If you want to save yourself some energy (trust me, you'll need that energy when you start farming through your old posts), check out these helpful articles:
- How to Enable Timeline Now (via mashable.com)
- 6 Must-Do Privacy Tweaks for Facebook Timeline (via pcworld.com)
Among the highlights:
-Joining "The Facebook" (yeah, that pointless article used to grace the title)...
Wow. Really? I've been on Facebook for seven years? Who in the hell has been keeping up with all of my pointless updates?
-Old (appropriate) photos...
... like this one of my best friend Lisa and me on my graduation in 2005. Someone could've helped a me out with a little volumizer though.
-Posts from friends like this one...
... when Kevin and I got engaged in 2006.
-Memories from my early days of serious running...
... yeah, I was exhausted. Running a half on almost zero training was not a good idea. Lesson mostly learned.
-More old random photos...
... notice that klassy Busch Light can and the jean skirt. Double win.
-The changing of Relationship Guard...
... because we all know it's fun to go from "In a Relationship" to "Married" or what have you. I always was a fan of "It's Complicated". FB Ambiguity is hilarious.
-The first post-marathon status update...
... still gives me shivers of excitement. And pain. Lots of quad pain.
-And the birth of the blog... .
... who knew I'd still be writing decent bogus content once in a while?
Lisa (see above) and I had a conversation all about Timeline today. We agreed that it's kind of awesome (and frightening) to go through the stuff you used to do and compare your Timeline self to your 2011 self. It made us want to both A) go and do it all again while simultaneously B) relaxing on the couch at 9 p.m. with a cozy blanket and the TV. Hah.
What do you think about Facebook Timeline? If you haven't checked it out yet, go do it now!
-What's one thing you'd be first to delete/erase/hide?
-What's one favorite memory you came across on Timeline?