First there was the addition of the high school network. The “notes” arrived next. Now with the new “mini-feed” and “news feed” features displaying users’ every move, many students say Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, have gone too far.
In the early days of Facebook, users’ profiles contained basic information along with a profile picture. Originally there was no “wall,” no photo albums, no notes, no work or detailed school options and no way for high school students to access the system.
Zuckerberg slowly updated the system for users’ convenience and amusement as the network grew.
Most users grew accustomed to and accepted the new features. Now with many students equating the newest additions to stalking, this latest change has not found acceptance so easily.
The “news-feed” feature appears on the user’s home page and allows users to view any updates their friends have made within the last few days, such as groups they have joined, friends they have made or pictures they have added.
The “mini-feed” feature appears in each users profile and has the same features as the “news-feed.”
The new features were put into effect Monday evening, and it did not take long for students to start protesting.
“There’s no more privacy,” sophomore Elzie Hollins said. “But if you don’t have anything to hide, I guess it’s not a problem.”
In three days, hundreds of groups were created denouncing the “new” Facebook and thousands of students quickly joined the crowd of unhappy users.
“I actually just created a group about it,” sophomore LaHoi’a Malone said. “I think it’s stupid. I don’t want to know someone’s commented on my picture before I’ve even seen the picture! It’s just for people who want to gossip all day.”
According to an Aug. 29 blog by Zuckerberg, most of the changes to Facebook have been met with criticism.
“When we’ve made changes in the past, a lot of people have gotten upset and emailed in asking us to change the site back,” he said. “Change can be disorienting, but we do it because we’re sure it makes the site better.”
A blog posted on Sept. 5 attempted to defend the founder’s actions and calm students’ frazzled nerves about the changes to the site.
“We’re not oblivious of the Facebook groups popping up about this. And we agree, stalking isn’t cool,” Zuckerberg said. “But being able to know what’s going on in your friends’ lives is. This is information people used to dig for on a daily basis, nicely reorganized and summarized so people can learn about the people they care about.”