Have you quit Facebook yet? Me neither.
Recent user outrage in response to Facebook’s redesign, the announcement of its impending Timeline feature and its integration with other sites has by now quieted down to a modest curmudgeonly growl. Part of me is a little sorry to bring it up again. But in the unlikely case that this column inspires another wave of bitching that will clog up my News Feed, new Facebook has made it easy for me to unsubscribe from social media’s breed of neo-Luddites.
Facebook’s Timeline feature will present an archive of the user’s digital memories. Old party pictures, old statuses, old flames. Critics worry information that was once considered appropriate for public viewing will inopportunely show up in this feature. The thing is, though, Facebook has always been really great at letting me present myself the way I want to be seen.
I made my Facebook account when I was 15. Fifteen-year-olds can often be embarrassing, and I am more than confident that I was no exception. But I am willing to bet a large nugget of Facebook’s eventual initial public offering that Timeline will allow me to present to the world a version of my teenage self that is nothing less than adorable.
As with most products, there’s the thing Facebook says it does and the thing it actually does. Facebook tells us its purpose is helping us keep in touch. Though that’s true, a huge part of what we do on Facebook is social self-promotion. When something interesting happens to us or when we just need to remind the world that we exist, we update our statuses. When we have tans at the end of the summer, we change our profile pictures. Because it’s not in Facebook’s interest to crappify user experience, I cannot imagine that there will ever be a time when I can’t completely orchestrate my portrayal on Facebook. For example, I will never choose to link my Facebook account to a site like Spotify where I stream music because I know doing so will instantly negate whatever modicum of street cred I cling to. I have a hard time believing Facebook will ever force me to announce just how often I listen to Carrie Underwood’s “Cowboy