Start Panicking: Facebook Timeline To Be Mandatory For All Users
By Chelsea Karnash
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – And on the seventh day, Mark Zuckerberg unleashed Timeline.
Yes, all Facebook users now have a limited amount of time to migrate over to Facebook's Timeline format and edit their virtual pasts. Because after seven days, that past is going be broadcast to the entire world -- or at least to your "friends."
Timeline, the social media giant's biggest (and to some, scariest) overhaul in years, has been quietly infiltrating certain Facebook users' profiles over the past few months. It allows users to display their lives to their Facebook friends in a new, scrapbook-like format, complete with a clickable dateline on the right side of the page. Users can also add "Life Events"—births, marriages, graduations, etc—to their Timeline via a status update feature.
Previously, the new format was optional. But on February 1st, all Facebook users' profiles will automatically migrate to Timeline, and depending on your privacy preferences, other users will now have access to your previous posts, status updates, photos—pretty much anything you've posted since you activated your account.
In other words, Mom will now know exactly what went on at that epic kegger circa '06.
But there is some good news: Users have seven days to make the switch to the new format and edit their Timeline before it goes live. While you will be able to see your Timeline during those seven days, no one else will, meaning you have a short grace period to hide or delete anything scandalous or embarrassing from those younger, not-so-wise years.
To get the new Timeline feature and start editing, go to www.facebook.com/about/timeline and click "Get Timeline." Then "hide" away.
