I don't think people have really understood exactly how Facebook and it's new timeline will impact our society. I was reminded by visiting my grandparents this weekend; only rarely do I encounter images of them when they were young, and there remain few records of their encounters except through memory. It is a great treasure to learn from them.
Yet now we are just at the beginning of an era where all of history is available in an instant, compacted. I can read intimate details of events in my history that I would previously have forgotten. It has not impacted me yet, for I have barely changed in my appearance since my college days (all of 7 years ago).
I will not remain so. I will age. How will we reckon ourselves when our lives are not confined to history and memory, but are displayed on a page for all to see? Even more significantly, how will it affect my grandchildren? What will it be like for them to look back and see us when we are young, brash and naive, moving through life, having children? Will our society become more honest? Will the barriers between us cease? Or will we lose our sense of history and time?
I do not know the answer, but I increasingly aware that this and other technologies are changing the way that we conceive our universe and ourselves.
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