Do You Like Facebook Timeline?

With the universal rollout of Facebook’s Timeline feature, most users at this point have experienced the new interface and are getting used to the layout. And if not, it will be coming to you in the next week or so. While the news feed seems to be the same, each profile has a distinctly different feel with the prominent “cover” on the top and a split screen of activity underneath. 

As with every other Facebook change, it takes getting used to, but this more dramatic change is not sitting well with many users. SodaHead recently conducted a poll and found that 70 percent of the more than 1,300 users asked give the Timeline a big thumbs down, with only 20 percent saying they like it. Users aged 18-24 had the highest percentage of those who approved of the changes, but even that number was only 30 percent. Reading the comments underneath the poll results shows just how widely dissatisfied people are, with some saying that Timeline made them deactivate their accounts or at least make them consider leaving it. 

Security company Sophos also polled more than 4,000 people and found similar results: 

With all around disappointment and deactivations, is this just initial disdain for yet another Facebook change or is Facebook following in the inevitable disappearing footsteps of the likes of MySpace, Napster and other social networks that were once Internet goliaths? 

In a recent TIME Magazine article on Facebook Timeline, reporter Allie Townsend writes, 

“Even the site’s most loyal adherents have a track record of hating its new features, only to later declare that Facebook would be unrecognizable without them. When the news feed was introduced in 2006, users reacted to the change by circulating petitions and forming Facebook protest groups with hundreds of thousands of members. They now spend more than a quarter of their Facebook time within the feature.” 

Love it or hate it, Facebook Timeline (unlike its wildly unsuccessful Facebook Beacon) is here to stay. With more rich features, compelling partnerships with app/service providers and an opportunity to really invest in your online identity, Facebook is banking on the fact that not only will you come to like Timeline, but that you won’t be able to live without it.   

What are your thoughts on Facebook Timeline? If you're one of the many who don't like it, will you stick with it and try it out? 

 

 

 

 

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