New Facebook Profile Timeline

Some of you may or may not know that Facebook has launched it’s new profile called Timeline. The new profile has a better and cleaner look, I would rather say it’s more innovative. To update to his new profile, all you need to do is click on THIS link and you should have an option where it say “Get Timeline” at the bottom right of your screen. There are plenty of features and I think it is better for you to try yourself!

NOTE: Once you’ve updated to this new profile, you  can’t revert it back.  However, Facebook will force activate the Timeline to all Facebook users on December 22nd, 2011

Why delete Facebook content?

Back in September Facebook announced several changes to their platform, once of which was a completely redesigned profile page called Facebook Timeline. Facebook Timeline was meant to be a chronological view of your activity on Facebook, or as Facebook would prefer, your life. Sadly,  the new  Timeline feels half-baked and sadly you cannot disable Facebook Timeline once it’s enabled. Beyond that it’s just SUPER creepy that someone can so easily scroll back through old updates, photos, etc. I don’t remember what I was doing in 2007 or what I was posting then… do you? Even if you don’t have the new Timeline enabled, you might want to delete old Facebook content because you’re job hunting, dating someone new, or any other reason you might have.

How to delete Facebook content

As luck would have it you and I are not the only people who’d like to clean up old Facebook content. Yes, you COULD close your account but unlike Google+, Facebook refuses to let go of your contact information. So if you close your account you’d be starting from square one.

Michael Devine was looking for a job and decided he didn’t like the fact that Facebook exposed so much information and decided to do something about it. So he wrote an Android app called Exfoliate that “automates the removal of old, forgotten, content from Facebook(tm)”. That app isn’t free, but neither is your time. The app costs $2.99 and can save you a ton of time if you were or are a heavy Facebook user. With Exfoliate you don’t have to delete Facebook content by hand.

Using Exfoliate to remove Facebook content

Exfoliate is simple enough to use. Download the app from the Android Market and install it on your phone.  On your wall, Exfoliate can remove any post, comment, like, or photo, whether made by you or by others, older than a time you specify. Exfoliate can remove your own posts, comments, likes, and photos, from your friends’ walls too. You can specify in what increments you want it to remove Facebook content: 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, etc.

Exfoliate is easy to use. Here are the three simple steps:

1. Set your preferences. Indicate the age of the items you wish removed, from where (your wall and/or friends’ walls) you want the items removed, and the type(s) of items you want removed (posts, comments, likes, photos).
2. Log in to your Facebook account using Exfoliate.
3. Start the automatic cleaning process.

Yes, it’s that simple.. .but it’s not without flaws. Exfoliate takes a long time to run… some of this is based on Facebook limiting API requests. You’ll certainly want to be on WIFI, and certainly want your phone plugged in. Depending on just how much data you have on Facebook it could take anywhere from a few hours to several DAYS to delete your Facebook content.  Cleaning your posts, comments, and likes off of your friends’ walls is what takes the largest share of the time. Luckily, the application is created in a way that you can suspend it from running, and simply restart it to allow it to continue to remove your Facebook content. If you’re on your home WIFI or a network you trust, disable the HTTPS as this will speed things up a lot.

Be aware that once you tell Exfoliate to delete your Facebook content there is no turning back. I’d suggest exporting your Facebook data first. Facebook allows you to download some of your data; things like photos or videos you’ve shared on Facebook, your Wall posts, and your messages and chat conversations (visit yoursettings page and there is a download button at the bottom of the page). Once that’s done fire up Exfoliate and let it do it’s work.