Thoughts on the new, new Facebook

So the new Facebook profile is on its way. Those of us nerds who couldn’t wait or just wanted to see it in the flesh, used developer accounts to get dibs on early viewing. Here are some random thoughts that were induced by me wanting to talk about the social music features. 

The news feed features don’t seem to be working as well as I think they could be, since they’re really focused on people you interaction with regularly as far as I can tell. So you miss stuff.

But as far as the new profile is concerned…I think I like it. It seems like the right type of evolution of the Facebook profile that hasn’t changed a ton. The little photos was the first step and so, I think the desire was eyecatching the first time I saw it. 

One thing a lot of people have said is the uncomfortableness of having to go back and look at things in your timeline you’d rather not be reminded of. I’m guessing this is old relationship stuff for some people. The manual process of deleting everything or hiding things seems onerous. 

The other thing about the current changes that could be implemented better is the whole “subscription” business. Having to go on each person’s profile to determine which updates you’d like seems like a lot of work. Not to mention that friends lists have been relegated in a sense. While they’re great for privacy purposes, that’s effectively all they seem to be good for in the new setup. (Admittedly, I don’t display my friends list publicly most of the time to anyone. So it doesn’t really matter to me.)

What really matters to me are the music features. For ages, I’ve been frustrated by Facebook’s inability to really log what I listen to in other services. The last.fm apps have long been foiled and the changes to Facebook’s applications system so much had previously limited what was available. Now? If you’re a streaming music type — specifically one of those who uses Rdio or Spotify among others — you’re able to integrate your music listening into your profile. I like this for the most aware of my friends, as it does increase sociability and gives the utility value beyond inane status updates and all-important life issues. (Or anything in-between.)

That said, we’ll hear grumbling as we do when this really hits the mainstream media starting tomorrow and next week when it finally rolls out on Thursday and people get a whiff of it. It’s a huge departure from how Facebook has worked, but I think it’s a real reflection on how the social web has changed and is a pivot towards working how people interact in the digital space. 

Whether that holds up in the end or not, we’ll be able to find out real soon.

All around you – turn over your left shoulder and observe, switch shoulders and perform the same visual fact-finding operative – it’s hysterics. People are hysterical. Things are spinning completely out of control, making everything a nasty, head-splitting blur of activity. Just standing in it could induce migraine headaches and hyperventilating. There’s a nervous, coffee twitch that is steadily coursing through our hands and face muscles.

We all feel on edge and ages older than we should physically and mentally be. There’s always someone or some thing making the encouragement to do more and to move faster – hear those bleating traffic horns from behind if you haven’t stepped on the pedal when a light turns gloriously, finally (!!!) green. Your eyes probably hurt from all of that connectedness, all that text-messaging and computer screen-watching that you do all day long – skirting actual occupational responsibilities.

There’s a constant aching from head-to-toe and the rings under your eyes look like wedding bands for giants, thick as burrows. Health is a secondary concern. The emphasis is placed on productivity and products and progress and earning power. It’s about massiveness and mergers.

The only way to fight all that boredom – all of the marketers would suggest – is to buy more things, to be more technologically tuned in, to be wireless everywhere you move your feet. You should be able to smell the Internet in the air no matter where you are, you should be able to taste that sadness.

Words by Sean Moeller for Daytrotter about The Bowerbirds (via lprecords)