What Is the Facebook Timeline and How Do I Find It?

Do you find yourself asking, “what is a timeline on Facebook?” You’re not alone.

The Facebook timeline is often confusing for some because it’s also called the Facebook feed, wall, and even just your Facebook profile. They’re all actually the same thing.

Here, I’ll clarify some of the confusion about accessing your Facebook timeline and what it displays. I’ll answer:

• What is the timeline on Facebook?
• How do I get to my timeline on Facebook?

NOTE: If you are wondering how to search for previous posts on your Facebook timeline, here is the post with instructions.

What Is the Facebook Timeline?

Your Facebook timeline allows you to see your posts on your profile, posts from friends shared with you, and stories where you’re tagged. Posts are displayed in chronological order. When you sign up to Facebook, you’ll get a timeline where you can add life events and posts.

For those wondering, “where is the timeline on Facebook?” it’s not difficult to find. To see your timeline, click on your name at the top of any Facebook page.

Your timeline is the main middle column. It sits directly under the “Update Status” area.

Where Is My Timeline on Facebook?

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to get to your timeline.

• Log in to your Facebook account.
• Now, click on your name, where Facebook displays your profile picture. It’ll be just above the section “News Feed.”
• The site will direct you to your Facebook timeline.

Can You Search Your Facebook Timeline for Old Posts?

If you’re trying to search your Facebook Timeline for old posts, it can be tricky. Here’s a rundown on finding what was posted in the past.

1. Open Facebook.
2. Use the three dotted lines beside “Add to Story” to find “Search Profile.”
3. Search using keywords relevant to the post you’re looking for, such as “50^th” Then, click search or hit enter.
4. You can filter your results as well by clicking on the filter tab.
5. You can also click on “Most Recent,” “Date Posted,” “Tagged Location,” or “Post You’ve Seen.”

Your syntax plays a big role when you search the Facebook timeline by keyword. There are three things you can do that will make searching more successful:

• Tell Facebook to Search for Posts – When you say “posts by me” in your search, it will just show posts and not images or videos.
• Tell Facebook Who the Author Is – When you type “by me,” it tells FB to just look at posts you created.
• Tell Facebook What the Post is About – Typing “with birthday” will tell FB to only show posts with the word birthday in them.

Can You Hide Your Facebook Timeline from Everyone?

While you can’t hide the entire timeline, you can keep certain posts, photos, videos, etc., from being seen by specific people. When you change your profile privacy to friends only, it will make it so that only your Facebook friends can view your timeline.

To limit who can view your past posts:

• Go to Settings and Privacy
• Select Privacy on the left-hand side
• Click Limit Past Posts

Choosing this setting automatically hides your public posts and changes their privacy to “Friends only.”

To set the privacy for future posts, go to “Your activity.” Under “Who can see your future posts,” choose “Only Friends” or “Only me.” If you select “only me,” no one will be able to see the posts you make except yourself.

Can You Hide Your Facebook Timeline from Certain People?

You can also set the privacy setting for individual posts and create groups that won’t be able to see your posts. Those groups will only see posts on your timeline that don’t exclude them.

1. Login into Facebook on a computer.
2. On the left, click “Friends Lists” under “Explore.”
3. Click “Create List.”
4. You can name the new list in the “Create New List” popup. Try something short that you’ll remember means people you don’t want to see a post, like “Don’t Show.”
5. In the “Members” area, enter the people you want in this group. In this case, it’s people you want to hide posts from.
6. Click “Create.”
7. When making a new post on Facebook, go into the drop-down next to “News Feed.”
8. Click “Friends except…”
9. Choose your “Don’t Show” list in the new box and click “Save.”
10. Now you’re good to share your post, and it won’t be shown to that list of people.

Can You View Your Facebook Timeline as Someone Else or Even a Stranger?

You can use the Facebook “View As” tool to see what your Facebook timeline looks like to your friends and the public.

• Click your name in the top-right corner of any Facebook page.
• Use the three-dot button to select “View As” from the drop-down menu.
• This will show what’s public.
• From the “View As” setting, you can also click “View as Specific Person” in the black strip along the top to see the page as a specific person.
• Click “Exit View As” to go back to the typical timeline view.

If you’re wondering how to check the timeline on Facebook to see why a Facebook post is not appearing on the timeline, these steps could help. Your post might be set to friends only, only a specific group, or even to just yourself.

Often, if you’re thinking, “my Facebook post disappeared from my timeline,” it’s because the privacy setting kept it from being viewed publicly.

Can You See Who Is Looking at Your Facebook Timeline?

Facebook doesn’t allow you to see who views your timeline, and no apps can let you see that either. Unfortunately, that feature goes against the Facebook community standards.

The upside is that no one can tell if you’ve looked at their profile either. So, if you accidentally look at the timeline of a stranger instead of a friend, it won’t notify them.

I hope this information on how to view your timeline on Facebook was helpful. I encourage you to share your additional tips related to the Facebook timeline in the comments.

— Sean