1. Social Media = Nostalgia

    With all of the recent introductions of new social media resources, Facebook may seem to get lost in the mix. However, they very recently made a huge change to their online experience that altered the way users interact with their website. Facebook introduced “Timeline” which is a new way to organize and share information and your life online.

    Traditionally, Facebook served as a way to introduce yourself to the online community. All that really existed on your page was a picture, basic information and a wall for friends to write on. As the website has progressed it has become much more of a social experience, allowing the users to post photos of friends, interact with applications and chat in real time. As Facebook has become more of a real time, in the moment social media platform, the company feared that as users we would lose all of the past memories that we had established. This is where Timeline comes into play. This new organization of the website, while still focusing on “what’s happening now” allows users to chronicle their history on Facebook and recognize where we have been.

    Along with these changes comes a very large visual change to the website. Profiles are now much wider and provide a much more visual experience. Lane Sutton talked about Twitter backgrounds when we was visiting our class, and commented on how they provided a much more engaging experience. With this in mind, Facebook has created a way to get people to stay on your page longer. If you brand yourself well with all of the new visual aids, people will undoubtedly want to hang around on your page and check things out.

    Many of us have been on Facebook since sophomore year of high school. The amount of information and history that we have built up in that small amount of time is immense. Facebook has made it possible to revisit all of that in a more organized and visual way. We are all creatures of nostalgia and the people who designed this new template understand that very well. Social media certainly shows us where we are and where we are going, but now it shows us where we have been as well, which is very unique. 

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