Facebook recently added an “Add to Map” button for pages which have specific locations. Like everything in the new Timeline layout, which encourages users to recount their entire lives since joining Facebook, and before, this new feature is another step toward full-on lifestreaming. Facebook is evolving from a fly-by bulletin board and events platform into a space for more meaningful social interactions and recreation of days past. But does that mean users should recount their banal details of their lives, like where they vacationed five years ago?
What does a “normal” Facebook user look like? Is this someone who posts Instagrammed food photographs of what they ate that day? Does such a person “check-in” to restaurants, malls, gas stations and coffee shops? For the sake of big data, Facebook hopes that users will start doing just that. With Timeline and more than 60 social apps, Facebook will be able to accrue more data about each user, creating more targeted advertising. All users have to do is share. And sharing is caring, right?
