Interface

Facebook has changed its user interface several times. Some changes were very dramatic, so that you even won't recognize Facebook when it was founded. Anyway I would represent the history of Facebook's use interface with a timeline of screenshots:

The first, original Facebook user interface in 2005. At the time Facebook was called "thefacebook"

Facebook changed massively. One of the new main features are the ads displayed on the right hand side

Facebook profile in 2007

Facebook develops friends news cycle

Ads are now displayed in the left corner of the webpage

Development continues

This is the modern profile  that most people are familiar with

The newest addition of the Facebook was the "timeline" profile. It was released in March 2012. It is up to users to choose between traditional profile or "timeline" profile

Timeline debate

Timeline is the newest Facebook user interface. It is designed so that users would see what the other user is doing by looking at their timeline user page. It was made for more fun and to share with the rest of the world what you are up to. Its release date was sometime in March 2012. Firstly the timeline profile was optional. In other words users can choose between traditional profile and the timeline. But recently Facebook announced that it would be compulsory for everyone to use timeline profile. "Timeline is rolling out over the next few weeks to everyone, all 800 million users, and once you have it, you have 7 days to change it up — but there is no escaping it."- said Facebook. The idea of timeline raised a big debate whether it is useful or it is a bad idea.

There are some advantages of using the timeline. The firs pro is that the timeline tells the story of us beautifully. I mean everything you post on the Facebook, whether they are posts or pictures, you do it to tell a short story about yourself. Timeline uses the information already there to create a good-looking story. Timeline consists of new interface that provides an exciting and incredibly intuitive new experience of the wall. Secondly the timeline stores information in a kind of "nutshell". On that timeline it lists every friend that we added, the jobs we have done, places we have been to, photos we are tagged on, etc. Even the things that you don't remember any more, like what project you did for Biology in the 5th grade.  In a "nutshell"l it takes our time and activity as users of Facebook and puts all of it so that it in a very visually pleasing way tells our story. In addition to all listed above, timeline has an awesome new feature: Life event. It is a storytelling feature that shows the achievements you have done, your new purchases, weight loss, family relationship and many more. Life Event has five catagories: work and education, family and relationships, living, health and wellness, milestones and experiences. With Life event you can now post an image with a story behind it. And of course timeline puts the information in Life event in a gorgeous style.

Although the impressive new visual features with timeline on the other hand, it has some drawbacks. The first one is timeline's inconvenient alteration of the previous profile. The new features affect the news feed and user profiles that it is very annoying. For example, the posts are now may be split apart and there could be a picture placed between so that it make it nearly impossible to read or/and the picture or the text is out of focus. Another disadvantage of timeline is that the news feed is now controlled by Facebook algorithm. And sometimes you don't get the important information about your friend because someone wrote there "I don't care" and Facebook recognizes it as unnecessary. The third drawback is that timeline changed our priorities. So now people are more concentrating on making a nice timeline wall, rather than spending time reading your friends articles and sharing the cool news with them. The most important drawback raises an issue of privacy. Do you think that Facebook will manage your private activities off the public timeline? Facebook already failed several times. For example Finish newspaper reports that users could see some of the private messages on their timeline profile. Also most people hate that their profile was changed in a CV of their life. Not all people want to share their private activities like running or shopping and their location with the rest of the world.

In conclusion, I think that the new timeline profile is very attractive for the eyes. but it is has more drawbacks than advantages. I would prefer the old traditional profile as the most people do. In my opinion Facebook should make the use of timeline optional to users. Then it will solve all of the problems concerning timeline.