The Ensuckification of Facebook Continues
It’s official: Facebook is forcing us all to switch our profiles to the new “Timeline” format, whether we want it or not. I can assure you that, empirically, it sucks.
Back when I was studying journalism, rather than making fun of journalists, they taught us that a newspaper or magazine layout should follow a Z pattern. A reader’s eyes quite naturally start at the top left corner, scan right, zip down and to the left, then right again — so your layout should work with human nature to make the sale.
They taught us to put the newest and most important information — the item that would get readers to spend a quarter — on the top left corner. (A quarter? Yeah, I was learning this a long time ago. But it’s a timeless lesson.) If the big item was big enough, give it the whole top line of the Z. The second biggest story follows on the next part of the Z, followed by the third, and then the fourth — if there’s room for four. Three, they told us, was more or less ideal. Too much information, and the reader loses focus before he ponies up the 25¢.
Here’s the layout for Timeline.
What dominates the top third of the screen? Static information. Your name, your banner (I don’t have a banner yet, so just a headshot), and some personal data like job and where you went to school. You know, stuff that doesn’t change very much, or at all. In other words, the first thing a visitor to your profile sees is a bunch of crap they already know. And lots of people are putting up big, busy banners which dominate your eyeballs. Timeline isn’t as bad as MySpace, but only because Facebook doesn’t let you use a zillion different fonts or animated GIFs. But let’s keep that quiet, before Zuckerberg gets any more bright ideas.
The next place your eyeballs travel is to the status update box. That’s fine for you, lousy for visitors. After that, something called “Activity.” Well, I know who I just friended, and you’re probably not all that interested. So… why the prominence?
The only thing I like about timeline – and the main reason I switched to it – is that it facilitates chronological exploration. In other words, it allows me to obsess over not only my present self, but also my past self. Oh…
As someone who’s only just a legal adult, I fear the consequences of my generation’s and all subsequent generations’ growing up with the constant presence and availability of media, social and physical. I think it’s already reduced our collective span roughly to that of a goldfish. And that’s after only about five years of Facebook (for me, at least).
And yet, I am still on it.
Sucker.
I was going to post a reply but I got distracted.
Fer cryin’ out loud, just get off the damn thing! Leave it behind. I activate my account once or twice a year and don’t miss a thing that matters.
The friends you care about will still be there and the ones who care about you will stay in touch. Zuckerberg’s name is obviously a play on Barnum’s aphorism about one born every minute – but we’re the suckers and he’s ol’ PT himself.
Pilgrim
I’ve had my profile at Timeline setting for months now. You’ll get used to it.
Here’s the cool factor you’re not realizing yet: “Your name, your banner (I don’t have a banner yet, so just a headshot), and some personal data like job and where you went to school. You know, stuff that doesn’t change very much, or at all.”
I change the banner regularly depending on what I’m most interested in at any given time. So now I can express it visually instead of just with a written status update.
Yes, I’ll get used to it.
But I still won’t like it because, empirically, it sucks.
As one who remembers the early days of BBS and hand-created email distribution lists, I think that while FB has the potential to be a pretty nifty tool to stay in touch (whether with only real friends or as a mass marketing assist), things like its timeline and never-ending (badly-done) “tweaks” is the unfortunate consequence of raising a generation where normal childish energy is automatically labeled and medicated, actions have no real consequences but instead often generate fame and fortune, and patience is no longer seen as a virtue but instead a cruel denial of some new entitlement.
Caveat emptor.
They say once can get used to hanging if one hangs long enough. I don’t particularly care to find out. But then, I’d rather spend a pleasant evening hammering rusty nails through my scrotum than spend more than five minutes on Facebook.
Sounds like you’ve got some exciting hobbies, Patrick. J/k. Recommended documentary from my arthouse theatre days if you’re looking for more plans for a pleasant evening: http://www.amazon.com/Sick-Life-Death-Flanagan-Supermasochist/dp/B0000AKY42/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343417113&sr=8-1&keywords=bob+flanagan
Fascinating documentary about coping with illness — not just a doc for those with kinky interests.
Didn’t your buddy Shaidle say there’s not such thing as just kidding?
Patrick I feel your pain… funny the narcissist don’t seem to mind being mindless fools.
Maybe if you posted your “pain relief” millions of FB fools will click “Like” and further expand their miserable lives.
That’s a pretty cool idea of changing your banner to reflect whatever you’re interested in at the moment. Mine has been a UVa logo from the start, and I haven’t changed it – mostly because I rarely use Facebook. I like Twitter much better.
I not only didn’t adjust I just closed the account. The only thing I like about Facebook is you could easily post articles from other websites along with header and picture, other than that I found it rather useless.
“Your name, your banner (I don’t have a banner yet, so just a headshot), and some personal data like job and where you went to school. You know, stuff that doesn’t change very much, or at all.”
You mean like a newspaper masthead?
If the masthead takes up the top third of your front page, you’re doing it wrong.
GOD, yes. Absolutely.
This layout reminds me of that other social media site that is slowly dying – what’s it called again? . . . . . . .
oh, yeah, Myspace. . . what was it people hated about it again? The confusing layout?
The good old Z pattern. I’d forgotten about that. Remember the inverted pyramid?
In blog writing it’s returned with a vengeance, although in my day job as a newspaper editor I insist on IP from my reporters for anything but a sports story or feature. It may be old, but it still works.
I don’t spend much time perusing my friends’ banner pages unless I have hidden their posts (because they’re tiresome), in which case I take a peek once a week or so to see what’s new with them. Otherwise I simply peruse my timeline which, as a timeline should, has the most updated posts of the people I follow.
I didn’t go to journalism school, but I did take one journalism course in high school (way back in the mid 20th century), in which it was pointed out that the main story in the NY Times was in the top right column. And that’s where it has always been – unless the main story gets a full page headline. So what gives with the Z?
Wait until you notice how easy it is for people to navigate through your old posts, helpfully categorized by month and year. Because if there’s anything I want my closest 500 friends to be able to find out, it’s exactly what I was doing in April of 2010.
Every time one of these facebook discussion happens I am “gladder and gladder” that I never felt the need to “have a facebook.” I simply do not understand the seeming attraction of this virtual junior high school which is ALL facebook is as far as I’ve been able to ascertain…..and yet people are willing to risk all to be able to join the virtual junior high-school popularity contest. I just do not get it but it is obviously my good luck….
Ha, F Book is very junior high school, indeed!
And to think F Book began by marketing itself to kids at the Ivies.
I have been inundated with ‘friend requests’ since the opening days of F***Book. Each time I replied directly by e-mail to the wannabe ‘friend’ and explained that F***Book was not the ideal avenue to my preferred statue of ‘low profile’.
Someone at F Book maybe got the message and the most recent Friend Request had an opt-out reply form. This has taken a great weight off my inbox.
I can still see no great redeeming social value comensurate with the amount of highly personal data turned over to them gratis.
Agreed.
Facebook is a hugely successful commercial exploitation of multiple egos’ “junk” being promiscuously broadcast. Without electronic condoms.
Whatever harm/embarrassment/harassment/malady users experience is their own fault. Any detailed “discussion” of all of this superficial B.S. is silly.
So much hype over a poorly designed message board, with apps no one wants, reminders that annoy, and constant, neurotic changes to the software.
It’s more than a little ironic that every time fb “improves” it just becomes more like MySpace, but with the added advantage that everything you put on it will be retained forever. If it were not a convenient venue for keeping up with my kids and a few friends, I wouldn’t be on it at all. And the more jaded users of fb become, the wider the door opens for something else to take its place.
Don’t get me started. The biggest issue with the timelines IMHO is the impact upon small businesses. They just finished absorbing the last round of FB changes (and laying out a wad of cash in the process) now to have to spend that money and energy again. It’s enough to drive many SMBs away from Facebook.
For a study in how your eyes can be drawn about the page: http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050513
It’s also possible to modify the Z-pattern: http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090821
Facebook sucks….period.
…this is a paste:
” Charlie Griffith
Agreed.
Facebook is a hugely successful commercial exploitation of multiple egos’ “junk” being promiscuously broadcast. Without electronic condoms.
Whatever harm/embarrassment/harassment/malady users experience is their own fault. Any detailed “discussion” of all of this superficial B.S. is silly.
August 3, 2012 – 5:52 am …..”
OK, if I decline the Timeline “upgrade” someone point out how to de-list one’s self from FB.
Responding to the request for how to opt out:
Technically, you can cancel your account, but they tell you that your information will remain available if you want to restore the account. So, you become invisible on FB, but you haven’t pulled anything back.
After the last round of privacy changes, I decided to clear out manually, so I deleted all my “Likes.” This may be the only way to really, truly get off FB.
However, in spite of being quite capable on the computer, it took me hours because many pages I visited *once* were automatically cataloged as “Likes.” Surprise! I could not find any method to “Unlike” pages in a group. It was one-by-one-by-one-by-one …….. Yuck!
One more and then I have to go: Many Facebook apps can post as *you* if you let them. Read everything!!!!
I read they only retain your records for 6 months. If so I really am outta there.
The only real reason I use Facebook is for the games.
As far as timeline, I will continue to constantly change my info. Since it is not possible to have anything resembling privacy in the modern shared-interface world, the next best thing is throwing out so much information and misinformation into the world that it become a grey mass. Kind of like the old Johnny Cash song about taking a car One Piece At a Time…
An excellent critique, Steven. I hope facebook pays attention. You have given them some useful pointers in a balanced manner. You know, they could save facebook if they listened. My own issue is a band page where I can’t find a good way of having links to my website or itunes or anything. And also, important posts re gigs gets pushed further down the page by subsequent posts. Maybe I haven’t done it properly, and my problems may not be typical, but I have them anyway with facebook. And I didn’t choose Timeline, and when my friends did, I was inundated with all their photos from the Jurassic period.
Time for some more Facebook shorts it seems.
The sooner it gets to it’s true value of ~ $2-$3US the better.
All your Facebook are belong to us!
FaceBook was so easy to leave. Yes, there were times during the two-week “cooling-off” period that I almost broke down and logged back on. I stayed strong and let the wretched thing die, and I’ve been happier ever since. I don’t worry about posting, or answering messages to people I have to pretend to like. I don’t need to “friend” people just to avoid looking like a jerk. In other words, I’m back to being a self-contained entity. Part of me isn’t hanging out there in cyberspace like a disembodied appendage. I have the friends I have, the family I have and my memories are my own.
Thank you ted — I’ve been toying with signing up for FB, just to get the latest political news, from candidates and their views on issues. But it seems redundant — what does any one need FB for, if businesses and politicos already have a website presence?
As for my friends, I prefer the ‘in-the-flesh’ type of friends, instead of virtual friends.
It’s official. You put information about yourself out there, and it will be used, not always in ways that you like.
I could have told you that from my lifelong experience of having a listed telephone number. Now we have an ignored, loophole-ridden “do not call” registry. I do my bit to give it teeth. Call anyway, and I find a way not to do business with you, donate, or answer your survey.
Facebook? It’s for slow learners.
The idea that a buggy, incoherent, counterintuitive, arcane package of software designed for teenage girls would even get an iota of attention from seemingly intelligent adults is laughable. “Melanie has pictures of her sister’s wedding!” “Poppy and Windchime are now friends!” “Beatrice loves Obama!” Yeesh! You can imagine the little hearts dotting the letter ‘i’. Don’t you guys have a life? Facebook by its very nature wants to turn everybody into teenage girls. Facebook seems to me the perfect vehicle (designed by aliens?) for destroying any coherent dialog between humans. Whatever happened to conversation?
I am a loner, that’s for sure
I try hard, not to be a boor
So why would I try to create
Ready gossip for all to relate
About me and my solitary life
By cyber writing on Facebook
Numbing details of daily strife
A thief of life is a stealthy crook
Such efforts lest you be not aware
May well create your own despair
Don’t use it, won’t use it, and I’m irritated by any company that uses a FB page for contacting them or for some promotion. I don’t want to join just to contact a company, so I don’t. I review my kids accounts but that’s it…
For those complaining, design a better networking site and maybe we’ll all join.
AMEN! It’s not just companies. It’s friends, too. One posted pictures of her home renovation on FB and invited everyone to look. For her, it was easier than attaching them to an e-mail and sending it out. I refused to join. I’ll just have to wait till I visit her to see the new house.
FB has never appealed to me.
How was that easier? If you have to notify your friends and post it you can send it by email.
In the Mid 1980s a High Tech company called Microsoft held an IPO.
That morning as I drove in to work Microsoft was $25.00 for it’s opening bid.
When I was driving home I heard that it had gone up to $128.00 by the closing bell.
How did facebook’s IPO go the other day again?
FB isnt a real company that produces anything, its more like an “idea”, or a “mood”.
The reason its tanking is, dispite how “popular” it is, its “customers” dont pay anything, its free….
So the guys who (might be, if they invest?) writing checks to keep all those electrons zinging around to MAKE those mezmerizing blinking lights glass keep moving, are saying:
“so…how do we make MONEY from this?”
And the answer is….?
See, you cant “invest” a fad. You have to buy something you can re-sell. “Cafe Racers” are currently very popular and (IMHO) very cool….but theirs no central name brand “cafe racer stock” you can purchase shares of, hold, and sell later for a profit. Its a diverse “mood/lifestyle” thing, its not a product, a tradable comodity of known value.
Cafe Racers are “popular” the same way Facebook is popular…all you have to do is “like” being around them to enjoy their existance…you dont have to build one, or ride one, or EVER SPEND A DIME ON ONE, to enjoy them. Liking them is NOT an investment. Its a mood.
So, there is no MONEY to be made from Facebook, other than the (speculation) that their highly invasive data mining will yield a bundle for those who “purchase”, and then manipulate, some pretty sensitive information Facebook is willing to “sell” about their customers. Private information Facebook customers would most likely NOT want collected and sold, if they knew the full implications of the security risks they faced when joining.
As such, their “business model”, if it is ever to be profitable, is a boarderline criminal enterprise…underhanded, sleazy and unethical.
Come on kiddies, Play here, its a fun place…Yeah, I just sold your PIN Numbers and SSN’s to some Nigerian “businessmen”…But hey, you FINALLY said hello to that cheerleader from Highschool who made you knees shake when you were 17, so its all good, right?
Without that bait and switch deviousness, Facebook is never going to make a dime for any investors.
Oh good, a Facebook pillow fight.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!!!
And who are we to question that “genius” , Zuckerberg?
Soon they’ll be harvesting your personal info (which you stupidly gave them) and selling DB’s to all and sundry.
Congratulations, geniuses.
Who cares anyway Farsebook is a complete waste of time and energy. The faster this garbage company goes under the better off we all will be.
Buttbook and MyFace and all the rest are just a symptom of our egotistical and selfish society – not all of us choose to join in the foolishness and self-worship.
6 people in my family from 22 to 64. 2 use it regularly 30 and 28 years olds), 3 use it hardly (62, 27 and 22 year olds), 1 just looks at what is posted by others (64 year old). Not much of a future there for this.
Since its invention during the period between 1975 and the early 1980s, the GUI has been static in terms of what it can do. With the arrival of the Web in the mid-1990s, all that happened is the GUI was thrown inside a browser, nothing more. It was the Web infrastructure of HTTP and HTML layered atop the deeper Internet structure of TCP/IP, nothing more.
The lack of invention in stretched back to ’95 for the Internet part, but even further back, as in 30 yrs back, for the human interaction part. This is the untold story of innovation in computer software slowing and gradually coming to a stop.
This is why I laughed at how the movie worked to portray Zuckerberg as a technologist. He’s nothing more than a property owner; Facebook is nothing more than a media property. It’s important, and as calculated two years ago, his property is a valuable, probably somewhere in the $12 per share range, which ain’t chopped liver. But a $100 per share was either a dream or a fraud, depending on whether you were buying or selling.
Chapter *** F***B*** Saga
The current view on the F***B*** S*** is the amount of lost IRS revenues when the scamees realize how badly they were scamed and realize the ‘silver lining’ is Capital Gains/Losses Tax Loss Carryforward.
The aftershock is what it costs to donate a vast amount of marketable personal information to a gang that sells that info multiple times to every willing buyer!
I deleted my facebook account today. The timeline program made me learn way too much about people I used to admire. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
Just wondering,What do they teach in journalism that has turned out so many socialists writers.
Of course, while I agree with your assessment, the bottom line is this: Facebook is free, and if you don’t like it, Google+ is waiting.
Now, let’s talk about 41 straight months of 8%+ unemployment…. (a record)
Don’t miss junior high school and never had a facebook page and seriously–not snarkily but seriously–wonder why adults feel compelled to throw themselves back into the most facile and puerile type of popularity competition imaginable after escaping from high school. Why on earth would anyone, having escaped adolescence, ever want to go back to this kind of idiotic environment voluntarily? For god’s sake Stephen, you couldn’t even legally drink back then!
Why anyone would put this level of detail about themselves let alone having your picture and those of others on the internet? It’s a free country so I get it that you can do what you want but it just seems crazy.
I guess I’m just old-fashioned. Or old. I don’t know which. But I never did see the point of all this. Looks to me like a big time waster. If I want to know you come to my house. But make sure you have an invite first.
Not only is it as hard on your vertigo as a “Bourne” movie, it TOTALLY crashes my Galaxy tablet, to the point I have to shut it completely off. Terrible horrible hideous unecessary change. Plbbb.
I joined Facebook three years ago, nearing the start of my first semester at college. I only joined from other people’s suggestions and so I could maintain contact with my friends both from childhood that I haven’t seen for a while and from people I’ve actually interacted with at school or otherwise, possibly be reintroduced to them former. Even then, I attempted other methods, such as gaining phone numbers and emails.
I’m probably going to consider quitting Facebook soon, although not before getting contact information from all of my friends to ensure I maintain some contact with them, as well as extract some information from various places for the Wikia before I go (which will most likely be November at the earliest, since my self-imposed ban on Youtube for its support of Obama (via Google, which it owns) will end at the earliest there, and that’s assuming Obama loses, since I need to upload a video on the wikia before I leave). I’m not sure I like much of the changes that’s currently occurring. At this point, the only thing I see of Facebook is trying to spread the word regarding Pro-Life issues, reporting on some bad stuff Obama’s doing as well as state that OMG (Obama Must Go), and giving birthday greetings to friends and family whenever I can. I very rarely, if ever, talk about myself, and usually I only talk if people ask.
Since my wall will most likely be a mess by that time, I’m probably going to avoid posting on it. It probably won’t matter, anyway, as my friends and family very rarely read any of my wall posts relating to topics anyways, with only one, maybe two of my 140 friends at least liking them, and I’ve put up with some family members recently who trash me because I either somehow support Republicans (when I’m actually an Independent, albeit one who leans Conservative) or I support Pro-Life issues and want Abortion shut down. It’s funny, lots of people comment regarding a cheap picture of some woman in scantily clad outfits or racial stereotypes of white people enthusiastically, yet when it comes to stuff that actually matter (ie, allowing babies to survive development, the fate of our country, etc.) it’s largely ignored by my friends. I don’t get it, really. You’d think after saying the pledge multiple times and having to go to church and learn things from the bible/torah that they’d at least have some love for the country, love enough to see what’s going wrong right now.
I might continue to use Twitter, though. At least that’s coherently done and actually resembles a timeline with its posts.
Ok fine. You guys refuse to post my perfectly reasonable and moderate comments for no apparent reason, and I’ll stop reading your blasted blog. Everyone’s happy.
Buh-bye.
Get time line remover, Chrome extension, I have been using it for over 6 months… it re-formats the page back to what it has been all along. Here are a few results via google search…
TimeLineRemove.Com disable the new facebook timeline …
http://www.timelineremove.com/TimelineRemove is a simple timeline is powerful extensions for your browser if you want to view profiles in the old style and disable the new facebook timeline.
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111 votes – Free – Windows – Utilities/Tools
Timeline Remove, free download. Timeline Remove 0.9.8: Turn off the Facebook Timeline with this extension for Chrome. Timeline Remove is an extension for …
Chrome Web Store – TimelineRemove
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311 votes – Free
TimeLineRemove.Com disable the new facebook timeline!
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The big problem I have wiht FB and timeline in particular is that it advertises your internet activity (comments, groups joined, things ‘liked’) without your permission. You can’t turn this off – you have to delete individual posts about your activities from the timeline after they appear. This is why I de-activated (but have not yet deleted).
To me, it’s more than a bit ironic, watching FB’s continual messing around with their software. Talk about not paying any attention to those who went that same route before. The old Space Dot Com message boards were, at one time, one of the busiest boards on the ‘Net.
And then the owners upgraded their board software to something that makes FB look easy to navigate and friendly to the user (“Pluck”). And this decision was *the* event that eventually drove SDC off the ‘Net. Faithful users got sick and tired of the lousy interface and cumbersome apps, and departed in droves.
Dump it- and trash any Google associations you have while you’re at it.
Junk.
Last year was my 14 year old granddaughter joined the junior varsity tennis team at her high school – the coach refused to use email and would post practice times and game locations exclusively on Facebook. Since my granddaughter is not allowed to have a Facebook account, she had to depend on her teammates for current info. That wasn’t always easy either because her parents only allow persons they know to call her on her cell phone (everyone else is blocked). Yes, her parents are strict and I am glad they are. However, this approach by the coach was pretty close-minded in my opinion. My granddaughter declined to join the team this year because it was such a hassle last year. I don’t blame her but, to me, this was wrong of the coach. She was asked to email my granddaughter but she refused. Stupid. Not to mention the privacy issues around teens being completely ignored by this coach.