Hello Big Brother
I’ve been playing around with Facebook’s new timeline feature for the past couple of days. My first impression is that it looks very impressive. It’s a far more appealing way to view your information than the current site. In fact it looks so ‘professional’ that I can’t help thinking that the reason for it might well be more down to how popular it will be for brand pages than for regular users. The new ‘cover’ feature and the way that the information is displayed feels more like a web catalogue or a blog than a social network. I can see it being very appealing for fashion brands in particular who upload a lot of images etc
The other thing that struck me was privacy. The current Facebook interface feels ‘disposable’ somehow. Because it is a live feed and updates only last an hour or so depending on your volume of friends it feels like it’s very ‘of the moment’. Things happen then they are gone. Sure it’s all stored somewhere and if someone wants to browse your old photos they can but because it’s not all right there and easy to scroll through the sense that its all ‘filed for ever’ doesn’t really register.
With Timeline that feeling that Big Brother is watching your every move suddenly feels all to real. Having a very easy to view version of your life from Birth to your last check-in is a little spooky. You are quickly aware of the amount of information about you that Facebook has and soon everyone you know will have access to. Somehow having it so readily available makes it more sinister.
As an advertiser i’m fully aware how Facebook and Google make their money. The more they know about you and your behavior the better they can target you with ads etc. When you first realise this it comes as a little bit of a shock but as part of the industry you get over it and move on. I wonder if this same realisation will hit regular users. Will they become aware of just how much of their lives are stored online? Will it bother them?
I think those people that understand that nothing is private anymore and don’t mind their identity being stored and used by social networks will love the new Timeline. But I think there could be quite a few people who might consider closing the curtains.
