Time flies on wings and it is time that has made everything around us transitory. In our walk of life we meet people and then tend to lose being in touch with them. We can’t really blame anyone given to the cause that life has now become quite hectic. Everyone seems to be in a rush and with the technological advancements; we have sort of given ourselves an online existence. Our social life has now become all the social networking sites where our profiles make us what we are to the world. We now interact with our long lost friends, colleagues and distant relatives through the social networking sites. Nothing is bad about it though as social networking sites like Facebook has given us enough space to pour ourselves out on its pages. It has given us apps, the power to create groups, be a part of communities, like and comment posts, the freedom to share our thoughts, upload pictures and videos and what not. With new features being introduced to keep its 800+ million users contented, Facebook Timeline is a new feather added to the cap.
However, despite its popularity it has been noticed that the Facebook Timeline is yet to make their appearance across all the profiles in Facebook. It is upto the users to enable the feature and publish it, many users are still sticking to their older profiles. This might be so because many of us are yet to realize the importance of it, both in personal and professional terms. It is therefore important that one first knows what the Timeline is all about. To put in simple terms, the Facebook Timeline is a medium to document your life in a digital format right from the time you create the profile till date through posts, photos and events.
When we are saying that the Facebook Timeline presents a slice of the user’s life, then it is true. A slice as it has got privacy settings to display just as much as you want to the other followers. Your profile is your private space and how much public you want to make it is dependant on you. The Facebook Timeline can be easily added just buy using the button ‘Get Timeline’. Once the user has enabled the feature, he or she can now wait to ‘Publish It’ to the profile. Until and unless it is published, no one else can view it.
The Facebook Timeline is divided in certain parts. The beginning allows the user a cover. It’s like the first step- a book cover- it is a picture that represents you and the first thing that the visitors can see. Next comes the ‘Your Stories’ section where as the user one can write down the posts, upload pictures and note down events to be shared with friends and family members. Use the ‘Apps’ to talk about your interests as in music, movies and any other hobby.
Shifting to the professional perspective and recent reviews have brought this to the limelight that a Facebook Timeline can very well be an online resume. That is what employers are treating it to be. This is a better way to know applicants, they say. The chronological description of your life’s events tells a lot about who you are. With the Timeline chalking out the details according to specific time frames, navigating through the user’s profile is easy (a fast Internet service by the internet service providers is good for quick loading of the pages). You get to know what you just want to know rather than doing unnecessary amount of searching. It is however upto the user to see that any prospective employer is viewing the right details related to your career. An organized list is what can make things easier.
For businesses also, the Facebook Timeline can do wonders. It can capture mass attention and a good number of followers, go for good brand promotion and create value through this social media platform. An interesting page with the company’s achievements over the years can score more over a static website.
Facebook Timeline is therefore like a picture album which chronologically lays out your important events and memories. It can be termed as a social scrapbook through which the users can flip through the pages and take a journey backwards in time.
About Brandon Leibowitz
