No, that is not sarcasm above you. Facebook is brilliant.
Allow me to explain.
Over the past two years, Facebook has changed a lot. The layout, the features, the privacy settings – everything.
And you (and I) have bitched about it.
But here’s the thing – the new “timeline?” Genius.
How else could I read through all my status updates, therefore continuing to help tie together the past 5+ years?
I mean, you can pick a year/month and see all activity. It is fascinating.
For example, I had a status in September 2010 that said, “when it rains, it pours.” Reading that today, I had no idea what I was talking about.
Was it:
A) Numerous new job prospects
B) Numerous random dudes e-mailing me on OKCupid
C) A weather report
After digging through email archives, I discovered the correct answer was “A.” But that doesn’t mean I didn’t find some other status updates that were hilarious and jogging memory lane. For example:
8/22/2009: is pondering voicemails left at 3:30am that are entirely in Spanish. (thank goodness I remembered 3-5 words and could barely translate it)
11/6/2009: me: I tried to make it my profile picture and it kept giving me error messages. I think it was a sign. Katie: yes, it was a sign. from above or below, depending on who you ask. (pretty sure it was a sign from both directions – no one wanted it to happen)
11/23/2009: overheard the most awkward conversation on the bus this morning, starting with the guy getting on the bus. Girl: “omg, I didn’t know you took this bus, what a coincidence.” Guy: “yeah…oh by the way I got your text Saturday night.” Girl: oh hahaha that was NOT my idea, that was Liz’s idea.” Yeah RIGHT. It was your idea until he didn’t respond and you had to pass off the blame. Been there, done that. (painful)
1/19/2010: Courtney: How big was the bottle of rum? Me: it was a normal size. Is that a handle? Courtney: No. A handle HAS a handle.
3/13/2010: is obviously being punished for a previous life. Miami just lost to Duke and Illinois just lost to Ohio State. Fail.
I could go on and on and on. The point here is that Facebook is allowing me to relive status updates I otherwise never would have remembered. I’m lucky enough to have that and GMail archives to tie everything together and remember things that I’d have no chance of revisiting otherwise.
Hate the timeline all you want, but it’s actually the key to many, many stories you may not otherwise remember. Because, as Facebook just reminded me “whatever…we still have 1985. Georgetown can bite me.”
A Series of Very Bad Decisions 