So, how do you like Facebook Timeline so far? We can safely ask this now that the rest of Facebook has been nudged into the service, even though many Richmonders had played with the massive profile change for months now.
The significant facelift to the profile is more than just cosmetic. It’s functionally a different way to look at ourselves on Facebook, and maybe more to the point, it’s a different way to present ourselves to be looked at. Timeline pivots the profile away from simply a list-driven biographic memo (a sort of character sheet listing only base information, interests, and stats) and toward a more elegantly conceptual record of thoughts, events, and images.
Think: digital scrapbook. The change is significant for more than just layout or content. What you are in profile is no longer an easily chosen (if awkwardly displayed) set of categories and small facts. With Timeline: you are what you post. Which in some way, we already knew. And were already gravitating toward. Consider when you “Google someone” and we make judgments based on websites associated with them – such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Tumblr accounts. We already judge quite a bit by the digital wake we leave in the water. And that wake isn’t just comprised of centralized profiles, but also the thousands of content pieces we place.
“We are what we post” has a profound effect on our identities, to the point that people look to us for our guidance on certain subjects and industries. Geolocation comes into play as people see us check into that new restaurant and ask us how it is (this happened to me recently with BlowToads in Carytown, within hours of my first check-in). We’re curators of our interests, our lives. Curation online isn’t a new concept or action really – in fact it is as old as the web itself. But there has been an interesting shift in the number of curators. Just as blogs shifted from a rare but prolific few to thousands and beyond – we now see a population sharing even the briefest hints of interest quantified by Likes or qualified in tantalizing photography.
What’s the best example of curating? Pinterest. Millions have joined and its activity on even a local scale is worthy of notice. You can search for “RVA” and instantly see how curators of fashion, architectural elements, DIY projects, events, photography, and more are utilizing the platform to reflect their world and ultimately, shape some part of their online identity.
Our own personal brand online is evolving and it’s more directly tied to an increasingly detailed stream of carefully chosen content, viewable based on the privacy floodwalls we put up between channels or friends lists. And if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be over here agonizing about my Timeline cover photo choice.