There was a time when Facebook was an intimidating new phenomena, back when we all used Myspace and were much more comfortable with Tom’s occasional updates than with Mark Zuckerburg’s fancy new website. Inevitably, we all switched over and Facebook became the most intuitive and useable website in the social networking sphere.
It was only occasionally updated, with a new format for Facebook chat or the addition of pressing “enter” to send a message or write on a wall, but was generally consistent.
It is because of this that many people have reacted very strongly to the recent updates of the Facebook format and are protesting on their personal walls to keep the setup as it is.
However, I believe the Facebook community would benefit from embracing these changes as another nifty innovation in the social networking world.
The new design is certainly very different. The personal page is built like a collage, with pictures and wall postings sporadically placed on the site.
The status boxes are also more difficult to locate and update, and when posted, no longer appear in a vertical timeline in the middle of the wall.
The profile photo kept its usual place in the new design; however, the addition of a “cover” photo for the page takes up quite a bit of room and directs the general focus away from tagged photos or profile pictures, which used to be front and center.
These general changes will take time to get used to, but they are small inconveniences in light of the new creative additions.
The most innovative part of this new site is the timeline attached to the personal Facebook page.
Facebook now generates a timeline based on a person’s social networking history and also allows the user to update and edit the timeline as they wish.
Events like weddings, breakups, new jobs or a home purchase can now be included on a personal page and set sequentially in a timeline.
Although the new format is at times very confusing and certainly more challenging to navigate, ultimately it is an enhanced way to trace life and its events.
The timeline allows for friends and family to have an immediate reference point for all the exciting changes in their loved one’s lives and the collage structure of the page acts as an online bulletin board for all the thoughts and links users post on the site.
We should all embrace and learn to use the changes in Facebook. Although users are more comfortable with the old site, soon the days of plain, boxy, newsfeed pages will feel archaic, just like we felt about Myspace after settling into using Facebook.
So go ahead and get the newest facebook update; it may be intimidating at first, but soon it will feel completely natural.
