Every Wednesday the contributors of Shruglife get together to talk about the things that happened over the past week, things that are going to happen in the current week, and the things we’d like to see happen in the following weeks to come.

At 1AM there were only a few of us left standing. TAANS, DJ Scallywag, and myself. Topic drastically changed and we ended up speaking about the internet and society. In detail, we discussed how as time passes and the internet grows, we all (in general) must be more careful with how we use the internet. We came to an agreement that we all must be conscious of how we are being portrayed in the online world.

It’s not like the 3 of us have anything to hide from the public eye, but just the thought that all the information on the internet is never actually deleted but just archived is insane. 10 years from now any person with the proper credentials can pull up your online history with the click of a button. Why add to this?

People have lost careers, loved-ones, and even worse over information that they thought was in their past but has come to re-visit them. I; of course am writing this with the assumption that all this “past information” is 100% legal, maybe just; a bit….tasteless and/or… stupid. Facebook (of course) was an actual example we were using and we all came to the agreement (by ourselves at separate times) that we would be taking steps back from the technology and reverting to more traditional ways of communication.

In the end, The fact that anyone can get a photo of you and just put it up for all to see has become a bit too much for the three of us to handle. So in the New Year, you may be receiving a few extra phone calls from your buddies at Shruglife and fewer Facebook Chat Requests. We didn’t even get into the fact that our phone conversations can be pulled up at anytime… We had to compromise somewhere and just give up.

So, why am I writing this. Anyone who really knows me, knows I am a sucker for good design, typography, and all things with a minimalistic feel. Crawling through the internet I stumbled upon this design project by Barton Smith called Facebook Facelift. After looking at his Facelift of Facebook’s website (that’s not going to happen) I was immediately drawn and said to myself… “If Facebook looks like this, I’d never leave it”. Going against everything that I said above. So Facebook, If you want to continue having me as a customer (not that you need me) follow Barton’s vision and you may add to your hefty 350 million active viewers.

Below is a video of Barton’s vision & some photos to see how great design can go a very long way.

Facebook Facelift – Home & Profiles from wearetol on Vimeo.

Check out the rest here

Cheers & Don’t do stupid things on the internet (unless the design is really cool)