TECH Thursday: Introduction to Facebook’s Timeline, coming to a computer near you

 
by Shinazy

Facebook.  For some of us Facebook is just two four-letter words, for others it is the local café, and for others still it has replaced letter writing and postal stamp buying.  Regardless of our personal feelings about it, like the telephone – (remember that black thing that sat in the hallway nook tethering us to within 3 feet of the wall) – Facebook is here to stay.  And like the telephone, just when we finally figured out how to friend our friends, post on our wall, leave comments on our friend’s wall, what does Facebook do?  . . .  It changes!

Get ready for Facebook’s new profile layout: Timeline (hey, another double four letter word.)  It’s coming, like it or not, so we might as well figure out what’s it all about.

Think of Timeline as your digital diary, scrapbook, journal, memoir, album, chronicling your life events, or as much of your life as you want to expose . . . errrr, I mean post.

Early boomers will remember the television series, “This is Your Life” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Your_Life      Think of Timeline as your version, as it can pull from your past, telling your life story.

General info about Timeline:

Instead, of the single-center column, you will see two columns: a large one, similar to what you see today, and a smaller column to the right for speedy navigating.

Any dated information you previously entered will appear on your Timeline: your birth date, graduation date, birth dates of your children, grandchildren, work history dates, etc. You can add photos and captions to photos, or remove anything you would rather delete from your life story.

When computers first entered our lives, a wise person said to me, “If you want something that will remain the same throughout your lifetime, buy a fork.”

So, you see four-letter words can be something we embrace.

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Stay tuned for the nuts and bolts of Timeline.  I’ll also cover: the “Activity Log”, cog / icon / badge, other stuff on the main page, “Life Event”, and . . .  PRIVACY tips.

photo by stoneysteiner