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Technology & Innovation — December 15, 2011

Facebook Timeline: What You Need to Know

A digital scrapbook of your entire life. That's what Facebook is releasing with its newest product Timeline. But in telling the story of your life, you may want to do some editing.

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What’s the Latest Development?

Today Facebook releases its newest product, Timeline, to the public. The tool will allow you to create a digital scrapbook of your life, featuring curated photos, Facebook activity (likes, places visited, friends, etc.) and an apps attachment that tells friends where you went today, what you watched and what you’ve recently read. All in all, it represents the user-friendly side of some serious data mining. Between signing up for a timeline and the moment it goes live, you will have a week to edit your information.

What’s the Big Idea?

Do we pay too much attention to new social media products? And what about those who refuse to use the medium entirely? The New York Times reports that the growth of Facebook has declined from 56 percent to 10 percent over the last two years and while holdouts are generally happy with their choice, their friends typically aren’t. “Susan Etlinger, an analyst at the Altimeter Group, said society was adopting new behaviors and expectations in response to the near-ubiquity of Facebook and other social networks.”

Photo credit: shutterstock.com

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