Changing your profile photo is a puzzlingly big decision, but
Facebook is trying to make it easier to quickly change them
up every so often. According to TechCrunch , Facebook is
testing a new feature that allows people to temporarily set a
new profile photo, which will then go away after a set
number of hours, days, or weeks. Facebook tells TechCrunch
that it's making the feature in response to the way that
people often "use their profile pictures to support a cause,
root for a team, and commemorate milestones like
birthdays and anniversaries." The idea is that by setting a
temporary picture, you can express how you're feeling at
the moment and then have it revert back to normal when
appropriate. Facebook reportedly wants to roll the feature
out widely in the coming months.
In the case of supporting sports teams or celebrating
birthdays, this feature makes a lot of sense. It even seems
like a fun way to show a bit more personality on a site that
places so much value on the long-term. But it's also easy to
look at this cynically, since the most visible profile changes
to spread across Facebook are done in support of causes,
like to celebrate the Supreme Court's marriage ruling in
June. If people were to put up rainbow-coated pictures
using this temporary photo feature, there'd certainly be a lot
less of them still around today. On the other hand, this
feature may well make it easier for people to show support
for different causes that they might otherwise let pass them
by. At a time when you might show support for a cause with
a single tweet, there may actually be something meaningful
about changing your profile picture for a few days, even if
you set it up to disappear.
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