Fred Griffin had an excellent post, Major Changes to YouTube and Facebook - What Do You Think? that's stirred up a lot of discussion. Reading the comments has been quite interesting.
In those comments, I see several people here who seem to think that if some of us don't care for the truly abysmal appearance of the Timelines and don’t welcome it or the way the introduction of it has been handled, that means somehow that we are resistant to all change.
Well, I've been coping quite nicely with more change than some of you have perhaps even thought about or really comprehend existed over the past 60 odd years, and I've been coping with change in the computer world since I was learning the New! Cutting Edge! programming language, COBOL. I jumped on the Active Rain bandwagon the moment I heard about it back in 2007, and I've helped in the development of equipment and processes and been the first in my office, or city, or region, with more than a few innovations in my professions (which have been assorted, another indication of embracing change when it's appropriate).
However, when you've coped happily with enough change for enough decades, you learn a few things.
One, change in and of itself isn't a desired end. Change, inevitable or not, can be good, or change can be bad. It's imperative to learn the difference, and to make changes with consideration for their impact AND for the possibility of unintended consequences.
Two, a lot of change exists in the business world simply because people need to justify their jobs – they’ve run out of anything substantive to do so they need to rearrange the furniture in order to appear busy. That’s their main focus, NOT what works best for the consumer.
Three, a lot of times change is to see just how much can be lured out of the consumer's pocketbook without them noticing because they're all excited about "New! Cutting Edge! Everybody wants one! Must stay ahead of the pack!" even if the pack is running hell bent for leather off a cliff. This works on some, but the truly aware will see right through it every time. Happens often when something is working really well and it's purchased by a company that only sees dollar signs, not what made it successful in the first place. That happens way too often, and it usually tolls the eventual death knell of the thing that was so great in the first place.
Four, overload your target market with too much change, too fast, and you may end up going the way of MySpace and friends.
So, while you're so busy saying to anyone who objects to being pushed into the new Facebook Timeline, "Change is great! You're just an old foggy who's resistant to change! I, on the other hand, embrace all change enthusiastically", you might want to consider that perhaps there's a little bit more to the complaints about the Timeline than just resistance to change in general. (Really? Ugliest most user-unfriendly thing to come down the pike in donkey's years; in looking through the ones that are already there I've yet to find one that isn't.)
Now, get off my lawn, you young whippersnappers!
Photo Credit Diane Diederich
