Tag Archives: privacy

On Facebook and Life History Timelines

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How do you want your online history to read?

Today, I unfriended someone on Facebook.

I’d realized, rather belatedly, that about 90% of what this person shared on Facebook consisted of cat photos or videos. I like cats, but not enough to wade through dozens of photos shared in big batches on Facebook every day.

(Maybe other people do like cats that much. Maybe there are people whose sole purpose in using Facebook is to maximize the number of cat pictures they see every day. I am not one of these people.)

She’s not the first of my Facebook friends to share a never-ending stream of content that simply doesn’t interest me. Normally, if I know a Facebook “friend” in real (as opposed to virtual) life, I’ll retain the friendship status but simply stop subscribing to her content. This enables her to keep reading my content (if she wants to), comment on it, and keep in touch via other Facebook features — wall, messaging, etc.

But this person wasn’t really a friend to begin with — just someone I met on Twitter. And with the introduction of Facebook’s Timeline feature, I realized that Facebook is morphing into something new and different where an endless stream of cat photos seems downright idiotic.

The Timeline Feature

The Timeline feature puts every update, photo, event, and detail in your life that you’ve shared on Facebook into a reverse chronologically displayed listing. Here’s what mine looks like today:

Facebook Timeline

At the top of your profile page is a “cover photo” and your profile picture. Beneath that is information about you, your work, and your relationships. After a box containing a few of your friends, you’ll find every single item you’ve ever posted to Facebook.

Let me say that again: every single item you’ve ever posted to Facebook.

Including all the cat photos.

To make it easier for someone to zero in on a particular date, they can drag a slider on the right side of the page. So if you’ve been posting on Facebook for a few years, people can go back in time to see the Halloween party photo when you dressed up like a hooker or your rant about your old boss or the details about the honeymoon cruise with your ex-husband. Intermingled with this stuff is details about your new jobs, vacations, check ins, and other life events you thought (at the time, anyway) were important enough to share with “friends” — or the public at large — on Facebook.

Have you seen the Timeline feature in action yet? If you haven’t, check it out. Be sure to check out yours, too. Even if it isn’t displayed now, it will be in the future.

You Are What You Post

And that brings me back to the reason I wrote this post. With your Facebook history so easily accessible — possibly to the general public (which is Facebook’s default setting for updates) — people can get a real idea of what you’re all about now and in the past. If you care at all about what people think of you, you probably want to examine your Timeline and make sure it shows only what you want to show — and only to the people you want to see it.

If you think you’re revealing a bit more than you want to in your Facebook Timeline, there are a few things you can do, some of which I discuss in detail in a Maria’s Guides post.

Of course, the best way to limit what people see or know about you is to be more discriminating about what you post. Do you really need to share every intimate detail of your life? Every link to Web content you read? Every photo you take with your smartphone? Every other Facebook update you read that you find mildly interesting or amusing?

Every freaking cat picture?

On Facebook, you are what you post — and Facebook has a very long memory.

Interesting Links, December 1, 2011

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Here are links I found interesting on December 1, 2011:

  • U.S. Senator Fires Open Letter to Carrier IQ – Al Franken to the rescue! Let's see if he can get some answers.
  • Stanislaw Burzynski’s public record – "…not only do we have the right to question Burzynski’s “miraculous” treatments, but an obligation to question them." I cannot agree more. PLEASE help expose this quack for what he is.
  • Play the Lottery? Don’t Bet On It – "Time magazine has some financial advice for you. The only problem is, if you follow their advice, you are nearly 100% certain to lose money. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think this is the sort of advice Time (or anyone) should be doling out." It's not you, Ted. I agree wholeheartedly.
  • How to disable Carrier IQ on Apple iPhone – Easy to follow instructions for turning off Carrier IQ access on an iPhone. Slight but easy to figure out modifications make it work on iPad, too.
  • Gingrich Gave Push to Clients, Not Just Ideas – "Newt Gingrich is adamant that he is not a lobbyist, but rather a visionary who traffics in ideas, not influence. But in the eight years since he started his health care consultancy, he has made millions of dollars while helping companies promote their services and gain access to state and federal officials." And exactly who is surprised by this?
  • The personal computer is dead – I think Steve Jobs said some of this. But Zittrain goes on to argue that we need to take control of the situation. Sadly, there are too many apathetic sheep in the world to take control of anything these days.
  • The Sovereign Debt Train Wreck – This well-written and easy to understand article paints a dismal picture of the current economic situation.
  • On Girls/Boys Novelty Kits – Kudos to Edmond Scientifics for reading the writing on the wall — and acting on it.
  • Science kits … for girls – It's time to stop gendering our world.
  • NeverWet: Nanotechnology for Your Airplane – This seems almost too good to be true. What EAA is suggesting is covering the aircraft with a coat of this stuff to repel moisture and dirt and prevent the accumulation of ice. Not sure how that would help a desert-based aircraft like mine, but I'm sure there are plenty of other uses for it.
  • Translation From Corporate Jargon Doublespeak to English of Carrier IQ’s ‘Media Alert’ – Translation by John Gruber. I can't wait to see how this all plays out.

Interesting Links, September 26, 2011

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Here are links I found interesting on September 26, 2011:

Interesting Links, September 11, 2011

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Here are links I found interesting on September 11, 2011:

Interesting Links, August 10, 2011

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Here are links I found interesting on August 10, 2011:

  • Why Groupon is Bad for Small Business – Some specific notes on what's wrong with Groupon from the small business owner's point of view. Excellent points.
  • Groupon Is a Straight-Up Ponzi Scheme – Why Groupon can't work in the long run: "The vast majority of local merchants can’t discount more than 10 percent. Some can go maybe 25 percent in special situations. But 75 percent is a wholly unsustainable number. If all local merchants begin using Groupon then it can’t send loyal customers to anyone; Groupon can only send discount chasers to merchants. Which means that as Groupon grows, both local merchants and their competitors will find that Groupon’s main argument no longer works (if it ever did) — Groupon simply can’t send them loyal new business. So they all stop using Groupon in its current form." Read the rest of this interesting article on Knewton.com.
  • Apple is now the world’s most valuable company – Not sure how long this will last, but it is kind of cool.
  • Discontent with Lion’s “My Way or the Highway” Approach – Another interesting look at Lion features that aren't pleasing all Lion users. Personally, I feel that the positives in Lion far outweigh the negatives.
  • A Box You Want to Uncheck on LinkedIn – "Apparently, LinkedIn has recently done us the “favor” of having a default setting whereby our names and photos can be used for third-party advertising." Read more (and fix this) on BrandImpact.com.
  • How Could Anonymous "Destroy" Facebook? – Interesting look at Anonymous's threat to "destroy" Facebook and how such destruction could be accomplished. My opinion: I'd love to see Facebook go away.
  • Password Strength – This says it all.