Timeline

At one unexpected time I clicked on my profile on Facebook, and a different kind of profile appeared. What I saw was the timeline that was known to many of the site's users several months earlier. Good thing my original profile was still seen while I saw the all-new timeline, but all would change on May 9. I preferred to wait until that day the timeline goes live, yet on that day—Wednesday—my profile was already changed. After I disregarded timeline for many months when people went on timelines and regretted later on, I came to realize that timeline is not bad. In fact, it is really a good upgrade for my profile. It is even a more organized view of my profile as well as a good appearance of it.

But let's go back when timeline was something new on the World Wide Web. I first saw how timeline looks through an article on Yahoo. Upon reading it and peeking in at some photos I thought it wouldn't appear nice to me, and I'm content with my plain profile with the profile picture on the left side, a row of recently tagged photos adjacent to the profile pic, and a simple flow of activities and posts on the body. Once the social networking site released and promoted of it, some of my friends changed their profiles into timelines while others accidentally published their timelines. I saw then that most of my friends who upgraded their profiles regretted it thereafter. Some said it was okay, while others demanded the original one.

Then came that one day. When I clicked my name which was written on the top of my Facebook, a new look of my profile boomed on me. So they are really renewing every profiles on Facebook by May 9. But I think timeline is not bad. Anyway, I sneaked at the timeline that was shown to me, took a review on it, and realized after such days that timeline appears to be better than the original.

Last Tuesday, a day before timeline goes live, I had a thorough glance at the timeline. I hunted the timeline to the day I joined Facebook and understood more of how the timeline works and organizes every information in chronological order. There I saw the statuses I wrote from grade 6 to second year. There I saw the pictures that remembered me of such events. There I saw the posts every 10th of June, being grateful for those greetings. There I saw my activities on Facebook, which were mostly games and answering machines and yearly logs of statuses in photo albums.

Finally, I appreciated timeline that I was even excited to sign on and put a cover photo on the topmost part of my timeline the next day.

A better profile

First of all, what is nice in timeline is that you have the cover photo—which is now the fad among Facebook users. I have a photo that would be seen first whenever someone goes into my profile. It's just like when Philippine Daily Inquirer inserts a big photo in the masthead altogether with the newspaper's logo. It would be a nice highlight of your life. For me, I'll make anything that interests me my cover photo. Now, I'll stay on a photo of myself answering some Algebra homework. Next time I plan it to be some photo of a band(I think of Level 42 or Daft Punk) or a nice cover of a book or a better photo of myself.

Aside from the cover photo, I'm finally able to get back in time and look back at my past posts in a very convenient way. Every activities, posts, and events are simply organized. That's another great thing about timeline. I remember a friend telling to me that it is confusing, but as long as I learn how to use it, it won't be confusing.

I could now track my teenage life as seen on Facebook and see how good and how worse my posts and encounters were throughout the years I logged in on Facebook. I'm now 2 years at Facebook as the timeline says, but it's been so long for me. For those two years and counting I met and added friends, posted things of my interest, played games,commented on such posts....and changed from the way I speak to the content of what I share or write. I now realized I have already a large record of my life, being connected with people and sharing thoughts, on Facebook.

At the night of May 9, I finally logged on to a new dress for my profile. It now looks like a front page. It's now a line of posts, from "Now" to the day I started having Facebook as major means of social networking.

My profile was upgraded. It now appears a lot better.