As an adult, you have responsibilities — an income, maybe a mortgage, possibly children. That’s great! Congrats. Now is certainly not the time to be throwing caution to the wind — just know that Facebook will be doing that for you.  The Facebook Timeline resurfaces information you thought permanently buried, or at least, tucked away in a booze-soaked archive called college or your mid-twenties. Not anymore. Now, everyone’s profile page will become an organized scrapbook, tidily filed and tagged in one convenient place, accessed by easy clicks.  Just when you thought you’d survived all Facebook-related quarrels, the new timeline is sure to expose more hurt feelings and suspicions.  Here are the three people you’ll likely butt heads with, and some tips to ensure your post-Timeline privacy remains intact.  Deep down in your social graph, those old photos and status updates with ex-boyfriends or girlfriends are hiding. That’s pretty much where you want them to stay — borderline invisible, right? Likely, you’ve purposely kept their presence vague and unintimidating, especially from your current significant other. The new Facebook profile, however, gurgles your exes back to the surface of a soup that may be bitter to begin with.  Now each of our profiles will become a “virtual scrapbook.” In other words, your already jealous girlfriend can easily peruse your college years, right around the time your ex-girlfriend wall-spammed you: “I love you bunches and gobs, pookykins!” Cue jealousy. As if relationship statuses weren’t already fraught with drama, this new profile may antagonize many a good relationship. Make sure yours doesn’t suffer.  My advice? Quickly survey the ex-thumbprint on your new Facebook. While I don’t advise completely locking down your profile from your current boy/girlfriend, consider their feelings by hiding excessive ex posts on your timeline.  Think about how long it took your parents to find out about the magic that is (or “was,” depending on your point of view) Facebook. Likely, Facebook wasn’t truly “Baby Boomed” until at least ’08 or ’09. For many of the Facebook generation, this is likely around the time we finally “grew up.”  Your parents joined Facebook at a time when pictures of your keg stands and 4/20 status updates were already nestled safely into the depths of Internet history (or at least a loooong scroll down the page). Not anymore. Now, mom can pore over 2006 with minimal effort.  Crank up the parental privacy controls soon, ideally before they figure out how to use their new profiles.  Therefore, I would suggest either following the steps above by hiding potentially offensive posts, or adding your parents to a list. By adding them to that list, you can restrict your future status updates or posts by editing “custom” settings each time. Here’s how to create a new list:  Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t allow you to edit the view option of posts already published on your timeline (wall) — unless they’re your own. For example, you can’t exclude certain lists from seeing a photo that your best friend posted to your wall three years ago without hiding the photo altogether.  However, you can change the view options of your own posts. Simply click “View Activity” under your profile cover to access your private log, then select “custom” view options on past posts you’ve published.  Let’s assume the worst: Your boss is a total jerk with loads of time on his hands. He’s itching to scan every last post on your Timeline, searching for any reason to fire you. While this example may be extreme, it does raise some privacy concerns for those who thought to friend their employer in the first place. Here are some options:  Now, I’m not bragging, but luckily I’ve retained privacy restrictions from my old Limited Profile list that I can still apply to bosses and the like. The people on that list still can’t see any photos tagged of me whatsoever, even back in 2007.  Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t allow you to entirely restrict certain posts (like photos) from new lists anymore. Remember when you could go to privacy settings and select which people or lists were allowed access to certain items on your wall (e.g. tagged photos, posts from friends)? Not anymore. Now you only have the room to restrict friends from viewing your own posts on a case-by-case basis. No more blanket privacy options.  So, are you up to the task of conquering Facebook’s new privacy settings? Let us know how you fare with bosses, parents and significant others as you adapt to Facebook’s latest changes.  The New Facebook Profile: Timeline  Timeline is a radical departure from previous versions of the Facebook user profile. The most prominent feature is the addition of a cover photo at the top of the page. Users can change this to whatever they'd like it to be.  In 1987, my sister was born. Facebook knows these life events and includes them in your timeline.  You can even add a picture and context to your birth, which starts the Timeline.  The Timeline is a two-column interface with top photos, status updates, friends and more.  Facebook has added a feature that lets you see where you have visited. This is powered by Facebook Places.  Here's how photos are displayed in the Timeline.  Friends in the New Timeline  Here's what the Friends page looks like.  Some of the new Timeline's customization features.  More of the new Timeline  You can add life events, such as getting married, to your profile through the Publisher Bar. You can also announce that you broke a bone, got a new job, etc.
Find out how Facebook's new timeline might affect certain relationships in your life, and discover how to adjust your privacy settings to avoid potential quarrels.