Facebook Timeline and Deleting my Facebook History.

I joined Facebook in 2006. It's been love hate relationship with all the transformations that have taken place. Now Facebook has taken a huge new step, in the creation of the Timeline profile. It is now possible to see every aspect of a person's Facebook history. If you are concerned about what people might find out about you from 5 years ago, tough. Anyone can now go back years into your past. 

For that reason I have just spent the last 4 hours removing large portions of my activity from my new Facebook 'Timeline.' I'll admit it, yeah, I am a little self conscious about what I posted on Facebook as a 17 year old. But if you aren't, then you have no shame.

 This is what I have discovered.

1. Until about 2010, I posted lots and lots of rubbish. Seriously inane, embarrassing stuff. I won't even go into it. 

2. When other people are careless about their security, it exposes you too. Even if you are really careful about your security, if your friends aren't, everything you post on their profiles will be visible to the whole world. I have too many friends on Facebook who have profiles like this.  

3. Between April and August 2009, I didn't use Facebook very much. I have no idea why. Oh wait, yeah I do, I had a job! The rest of my time was at university, where apparently I am much more vocal about what happens to me.

4. Who I communicate with is very transient. The friends who I communicate with have come and gone. I found intimate conversations with people in 2007, who today I have literally no contact with. 

5. As time has gone by, my Facebook posts have become less and less frank. When I first joined, I talked about lots of things, without much of a filter. This changed to rather more abstract and vague posts. Now I barely post at all. 

6. It takes a long time to go over 5 years worth of Facebook. 4 hours and 17 minutes to be precise.

7. I have left an incredible trail about my life online. This is the most worrying aspect of this new Timeline, and the reason I have deleted considerable portions of my Facebook history. I have shared nearly every aspect of my life on Facebook. Timeline has made this history freely available to everyone who is my 'friend' on Facebook. 

Before it took considerable effort to find out about our pasts, through Facebook. Now, one has to just click on '2006' and all of a sudden you can see what I was up to age 17, still at school. I find that disconcerting. So unfortunately, if you are my stalker, that information is no longer freely available to you! 

Facebook, you are a fantastic, revolutionary tool. I manage contact with people who would have disappeared from my life a long time ago, were it not for you. But you are becoming more and more designed to take away control of what we share online. This is worrying, especially as people don't seem too bothered by the fact.