Created Saturday 05 January 2013
Ever since I posted that new blogpost for jrm4.com, Facebook’s been making me reenter my password and do more captchas, like it knows what I’m up to. Firing back now :)
First, let’s get the jokes out of the way. Yes, it’s the new/old MySpace. Yes, it breaks just about every other good rule of eye-catching web design. Yes, it looks like the 90′s threw up all over your browser, only with more monotone. But, as much as we’d love to attribute this to incompetence, Facebook is far too important to shareholders and other interested parties for “Timeline” to be merely a mistake. Others have alluded to this as well, but the Timeline thing seems to be an “800 lb gorilla in the room” move. That is, ease of use and convenience be damned, we now own you and your life — as we are able to conveniently show you, year by year.
I know, I’m a broken record on this one, but I will keep repeating it. We all need to start thinking about alternatives — Facebook provides some cool services, but the vast amount of personal information it has been able to vacuum up makes it too dangerous of a force. Please, let’s all consider the alternatives, such as Diaspora. I’m well aware that alternatives have a long way to go — but I also remember not too long ago when MySpace was NEVER going to be dethroned either.