There are two types of people in this new digital landscape — those who aren’t really affected by layout and feature changes in Facebook and those who curse the heavens because of it. If you’re one of the latter, you have to know that you have two options. First option is you can leave it all behind and swear off Facebook forever. The second option is to simply suck it up and embrace change.

With Facebook Timeline’s imminent arrival as the default profile for users, now is the time to pick a side. If you simply can’t stomach Facebook Timeline, go fort and find your new hangout elsewhere. We hear Google+ is nice. However, if you want to embrace your shiny new profile, you have to know what you’re getting yourself into. Here are are some tips on how to make this transition as painless as possible.

Understand Timeline.

The first step in accepting your new profile overlord is to understand with it is. Facebook Timeline brings a radical upgrade to your profile with new features that turn your usually lifeless profile into a virtual scrapbook. True to its name, Facebook Timeline lets you document your entire life using photos, videos, links, events and status updates. It’s all contained in one continuous feed of posts arranged in a pretty way.

Be creative with your cover photo.

One thing that gives it that visual punch is the new Cover Photo. On top of your timeline sits a large photo that you can change whenever you want. It overlaps with your profile photo which gives you a window to be creative on your Facebook profile. If you let your imagination run wild, setting your cover photo could be the most fun part of this whole Timeline business.

Fill out your past.

Before Timeline, you can only document your day-to-day life from the day you joined Facebook up to the present. With Timeline, you can now add events before the day you joined Facebook. You can actually start on the day you were born. You can pick several categories from the menu bar to tell people whether the event is related to work and education, family and relationships, home and living, health and wellness or travel and experiences. You can literally spend days filling out your Timeline. Obviously, if there’s something you don’t want to appear on your Timeline, don’t add it.

Control your privacy.

Most of the negative feelings from people who don’t want Timeline to invade their Facebook accounts stem from the issue of privacy. Once Timeline kicks in, it can potentially shine some light into past Facebook posts that you would rather not see again. Don’t panic just yet. You are not helpless in this fight. There is a new Activity Log section where you can adjust the privacy settings of all your individual posts. It will take some effort especially if you’ve been in Facebook for a long time already, but no pain, no gain, right? As for your new life event posts, remember that the default setting is Public, so make sure you adjust it if you don’t want everyone to see it.

The Bottom Line

We all know that some people are overreacting over this whole thing but there are legitimate concerns out there that justify the worries of some rational people. However, all of these concerns, mostly about privacy, can be overcome in two simple ways — suck it up and take your time in adjusting your privacy settings or deactivate your account and leave forever.