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# The Facebook Timeline in the New York Times
- URL: https://werd.io/the-facebook-timeline-in-the-new-york-times/
- Published: 2011-12-15T16:10:50.000Z
- Updated: 2025-06-12T11:00:44.000Z
- Author: Ben Werdmuller
- Tags: Data control, #ben-684a32da145d7d001be71dae, Web, contextual identity, facebook, facebook timeline, identity, the new york times, timeline, #Migrated-1749693130536, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-06-11 21:52

[![Facebook Timeline: lost a loved one?](http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6175/6175607846_49169b5cfd_m.jpg)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/benwerd/6175607846/)

I'm quoted in [the New York Times article about the global release of the Facebook Timeline](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/technology/facebook-brings-back-the-past-with-new-design.html?pagewanted=all):

>  
>  
> Mr. Werdmuller, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., said that the experience of browsing through his social history on Facebook was emotionally evocative - not unlike unearthing an old yearbook or shoebox filled with photographs and letters.

Regular readers will know that my opinion goes beyond it being "weird". Here's [how I described it back in September](http://benwerd.com/blog/2011/09/23/facebook-timeline-nearest-digital-identity-creepy-hell/):

> Except now, when someone clicks through from anywhere on the web that uses Facebook Connect to see your profile, they’ll really see you: your life in context. It’s a contextual identity; something you won’t get from a real name, a passport, an ID card, or even a DNA profile. Whereas previously profiles were a collection of hand-picked pieces of information coupled with some things you’d shared recently, now you’ll see wedding photos, pictures of drunken nights on the town four years ago, and perhaps a status update you made when you were hurt and upset after something you’ve long forgotten that happened in 2006 – mixed up with more professional status updates and links, of course.

You can read [my entire Facebook Timeline post over here](http://benwerd.com/blog/2011/09/23/facebook-timeline-nearest-digital-identity-creepy-hell/), and [here's today's New York Times article](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/technology/facebook-brings-back-the-past-with-new-design.html?pagewanted=all).