In a world where so many people have access to an individual’s private information at the click of a button, do we really need more creepy Web sites that tell everyone when the littlest details in one’s life change?
There has been quite a buzz online about new developments on Facebook.com. For those out there who don’t know, Facebook is a MySpace-like site originally developed specifically for college students to network with each other.
Over the past year, the site has undergone a few major changes. First, a high school network was introduced. After a few months, the two separate networks were allowed to interact, letting college and high school students be friends on the site. That was all fine and good. Developing the high school networks gave college students the chance to interact with younger friends without having to use MySpace or another site.
Then the Web site got weird.
In the past few weeks, Facebook has added new “features” meant to help it compete on a higher level. The new additions include blog capabilities and a board where people can write notes on their own profile. This was still OK.
Then came the “stalker board,” officially referred to on the site as the “news feed.”
The new news feed lets members know when their friends change any little details on their profiles including groups they’re in, relationship status, notes to each other, photo albums, location and interests. The constant notifications, plus the presence of very personal information like addresses, phone numbers, pictures and class schedules makes this feature a smorgasbord for potential stalkers.
Frankly, I don’t want everyone knowing every little change in my life when they log on. At least before you had to put some effort into stalking people – or so I’ve heard.
After seeing the appalling new changes, I was happy to see that many others using Facebook were unhappy with the developments. Within the first week of the news feed, I was invited to three related groups, including “Students against Facebook News Feed,” an official petition to Facebook. This wildly popular group had 287,600 members at 1:54 p.m. yesterday and ballooned to 332,970 members by 3:34 p.m. yesterday.
So what’s my point? The so-called new “perks” of Facebook are just weird. I want my old network back. I’m tired of seeing news feeds about how everyone hates the news feeds. You can put that on the news feed.
Allison Baldwin is a sophomore journalism major and the assistant city editor for the Daily Forty-Niner.