I just finished playing with Facebook’s new Timeline after unlocking it through this method. While it was an aesthetically pleasing experience, I closed my laptop and wondered, “What the hell did I really do in the last two hours of my life?” Reorganize personal updates for the sake of vanity and privacy? After seeing old college party photos mixed in with work updates, I felt the need to clean things up a bit. It took two hours of my time. And I’m sure there’s plenty more I should do to clean up six years of personal updates.

Who has time for that? What value do I get as a user from that time investment? And who really benefits from the new layout? At first, I believed in the biographical nobility of Timeline. But that wore off in 15 minutes. I think there’s a place for this sort of biography in the public search space, but not on Facebook’s community full of people who are supposed to be my friends. Access to the past is key, and I commend Facebook for making that easier for me. But I’m not sure its worth the time to manage it.

I agree 100%. Great post!

I like the basic idea of Facebook Timeline. It takes all my photos and posts from the past 10 years and presents them in a beautiful way. The problem is that Facebook took content that I feel is private and opened it up to the world.

I want Timeline for myself, a private view. Like a private photo album I can pick up to relive the past. I don't want this available to everyone.

And I'd argue that the world doesn't want it either. Who wants go back to view my old photos and posts? Only stalkers. Or managers when I'm job hunting.

Today I only share publicly on Facebook. But in the past I shared things with the assumption that Facebook was private. My "friend" list was smaller, perhaps more accurate. Today it's a mess.

Facebook might be digging itself a deeper grave every time more of my content is distributed wider. Eventually, you won't feel safe sharing anything. It's already happening. We found that 61% of people would share more if they had more control.

Facebook keeps adding/changing their privacy controls, but what they haven't done is give you a quick and easy way to change the past. How can I manage my friend list and unfriend people? How can I change the privacy of things I shared in the past?

I wonder if Facebook has ever considered a "fresh start" button that unfriends everyone. I'd click it.