Until now, Timeline, the new feature of Facebook (FB), has been voluntary to its 800 million users across the globe. But looks like a majority of the users are not too happy about the fact that it has been made compulsory, as they no longer have a choice.
A survey conducted by the security firm Sophos reveals that out of 4,000 Facebook users, only eight per cent of those polled said they liked the change. The new Timeline will group all publicly viewable messages, comments and photographs by date. The idea is to create a scrap book format, profiling a user’s virtual life story, which can be seen by friends on their homepage. A good number of city’s Facebook users too are miffed at the mandatory Timeline.
Neelam Jain, a commerce student, opines, “apart from the cover picture, nothing about the Timeline is interesting. Nobody is interested is what one has done on Facebook page ages ago. It’s confusing, annoying and definitely not user-friendly.” Agreeing with her a corporate sector employee, Srinath Dhalavai, points out, “FB was known for the freedom it gives to its users and this is so unlike them to make anything “mandatory”. Also, it clearly has a lot of privacy issues because not everyone likes to share everything about their past.”
The privacy issue appears to be the sore point for almost everyone. Vishnu Mamidipudi, a regular FB user, muses, “with Timeline, nothing is private as in anything or everything you ever did on Facebook is there all the time and privacy is gone. But, I guess if you update your privacy settings it shouldn’t matter.”
Some people do think that the Timeline feature will make the page look really nice and easier to view previous posts. Samriddha Ghosh, a student, says, “Facebook in the past one year has been trying too hard to get people’s attention and keep them hooked. It has changed its look for some three times now. While, I do think that the FB Timeline would have been great if it was optional, I also feel that the utility of this app is great. It keeps track of everything you have done in the past, and it is quite an attractive page as well.” Corporate employee, Srinivas Kumar too seems little bothered. “I love the Facebook Time. My page looks colourful,” he claims. But privacy is a concern with several users fearing this online profiling could help the powers-that-be to snoop around them.