It’s almost as though the world now revolves to some extent around this crazy thing; and as simply as Charlie Brown put it (far before he was a gleam in Peppermint Patty’s eye) :

“Good Grief.”

Well put, Charlie.

**This post is meant to share the link at the bottom – if you don’t end up reading the following and you use Fb, then at least skip down and click the link for some useful tips on keeping your privacy levels moderated 😉

Everyone from employers, significant others, teachers, stalkers, snoopy-mc-snoop-ersons, hackers, to probably even God at this point, look someone up to view their Facebook profile.  Really?  In this day and age where personal life meets social life meets the real world, I suppose it’s simply the direction things are turning..  and hopefully you (yes, YOU) a) have nothing to hide and/or fear, b) take your security into your hands by educating yourself as best as “they” allow you to (“they” being Mr. Zuckerburg and the many sponsors he has – now extending to commercialization), or c) do a bit of both.

Well, apparently here’s to going public!  Ms. Sarah Jacobsson Purewal of PC World took the liberty (and more importantly, time.  -Thank you!!) to help us out with the new Timeline layout of good ‘ol Fb.  Obviously it is now becoming (even) more of a marketing tool than social tool for people to “simply stay in touch” – they are now forcing (who’s forcing anyone?) users to convert to a blog-style layout to better track their lives.  SCARY?

I think so.  If I wanted something to track my every move, I would opt in for an anklet tracking device like someone on probation.  I much rather prefer a WordPress blog where I choose the content which I share.  But then again, if I didn’t want my life publicized to some certain extent, I would swear off the internet altogether..

(and yet again, I have a smartphone.. so I would then also have to revert to a rotary dial – which, may as well be as obsolete as the stone & chisel).  We cannot be upset with the push-and-pull that allowed Fb to be what it is, and to grow the way it has; someone has to pay for  “free” service, so we cannot be condemning the other side of Fb –the commercial side that allows it to actually exist in the way that it does: freely.  I only condemn the method of implementation lol!

Maybe it takes the younger generation to keep up with the “updates” that are being pushed, maybe my age is catching up to me (o boy..lol!), or maybe their engineers could take into a little more consideration their hardcore, diehard, established users who helped start the darn thing, not capitalize off us/them!  Cigarette companies come to mind.  ew.  Then again *sigh, the world revolves around money, so what do we expect.  Not to sound cynical, as my major at UCF is in fact Accounting, but gosh darnit (kept it clean).

There are many who are highly criticizing the new Timeline layout of Fb…  and though I’m truly not a huge fan of it myself (it will now become more maintenance.. like cleaning, laundry, dishes, etc –ugh!), my main reason for not “clicking the ‘Like’ button” of it is that it is simply not as easy to navigate.  It confuses the sh*t out of me – and just as I thought I had my parents taught on how to use Fb (to stay in better touch with family overseas – yay!!), they will now be changing it.  Completely.

Incidentally, while my steed was getting new shoes, I ended up sitting next to a man who had brought with him his glasses and a Sukodu puzzle book; no iPhone, no iPad, no gadgets or gizmos (as I texted my brother, checked the weather, played some WWF, and did some mobile banking), and who was perhaps one of the most insightful, intelligent, down-to-earth people I have met in a long time.  Opening my school folder with every intent to learn more about finance, I didn’t get to opening my textbook before discovering that this very quiet, humble, and peaceful person had worked for the NYSE for the majority of his life (aside from having the privilege of accompanying his wife on business trips, as she was a UN consultant –cool!).

It may be wrong, it may be bad, but I did record some of the things he was saying, simply because they were so …. what’s the word… inspiring, honest, insightful…  still not the word.  We had some of the best conversation I’ve had with someone in a long time, with no interruptions from pings, calls, bleeps and bloops of technology, after which he promptly paid for the service, and drove off in his sparkly Mercedes.  I’m gonna attempt to share the words in some way shape or form.. later.

Anyhow, whoops, huge tangent from where I was going, but most all relevant lol!  Point being, there is no use in being “pissed” or angry at the upkeep we will need to do in order to protect what we want private.  The easiest way to do this is to simply be an upstanding individual in life.  Period.   That way, when things are brought to light by your friends or by some crazy social media medium, you won’t need to worry about who sees what and how that may or may not potentially reflect badly on yourself (psssst, it’s called “accountability for your actions”.. or personal integrity…).  uh, DUH.  You definitely reserve the right to hold private what you want to hold private, you simply have to secure your own right for your life not to be a pigpen.

All THAT said *phew,* here is the article I meant to share paragraphs ago, in order to help you protect your content and security when the new Timeline layout becomes “mandatory:”

**And no, this was not meant to actually include all of the Peanuts characters… in fact I’m not the biggest fan of Peanuts at all… but somehow it just fit together.