It was Spring in Wisconsin of 2017. I was sitting outside, enjoying warmer temperatures, watching the grass start to grow and listening to birds sing their songs. Like many, I was scrolling through my social media feed, looking for something, ANYTHING, to spark my interest. I bypassed ads, sponsorships, memes, and random posts that were irrelevant or I just didn’t care about. I trolled my friends’ posts and read comments, yet I was still bored. I realized that I spent more time searching for posts than posting what interested me. I put my phone down, only to pick it up again seconds later. It was like opening a refrigerator repeatedly, expecting something different to be there each time. Social media had become a virtual pacifier for boredom therapy. That’s when I thought about how I would do it differently. If I was in charge, what would I change?
My name is Jonathan Powell, and I came up with an idea to change the way we interact with digital media. A simplified and easy-to-use interface that showed us only what we wanted to see. An environment unlike any other, one that would store memories in searchable, chronological order in a safe and secure place, free of negative social stigma, unsolicited comments and unwanted trolling. I founded Timeline, Incorporated in December of 2017 as the company to offer my invention to the world, and I named it ‘myTimeline’.
New ideas aren’t always widely accepted, so I did my homework. My research revealed that the recital of personal history has always been a pivotal function of our species’ continuity. We need a foundation to understand ourselves as individuals and collective units, maintaining sanity and societal order. Knowing and learning from our past guides our future decisions and influences the choices of our descendants. Thus, our memories are, without question, the most priceless property on the planet and a holistic memory vault would reinforce our belief system and improve the quality of our lives.
