Simply by logging on to Facebook I see the News Feed prominently displayed on my homepage, informing me as to changes in my friend's profiles. This information includes such 'must knows' as who has changed their picture, who has joined what group, who has written on who's wall, who's single, who is now in a relationship-basically anything you could ever actually want to know about anyone else. While the information on Facebook is often welcomed as a great source of gossip between friends, it becomes disturbing when every move someone makes is displayed for a hundred or so people on a computer screen everyday. The News Feed and its invasive mechanics makes one hesitant to change a profile or make a comment; with Facebook comes an implication of spontaneity and a certain amount of anonymity-yet the News Feed is currently eating away at both.
I've always fondly looked upon Facebook as that special site where you can go to mess around and learn completely pointless information about other people: but the in-your-face, instantaneous knowledge of the News Feed has become too much. The world's greatest procrastination tool has always lent itself to the investigation of other people's lives; it was invasive and stalkerish, but in a completely acceptable way. Before the News Feed, people had to have some reason, no matter how arbitrary, for visiting another student's page. But now, with the introduction of the News Feed, students are tempted to click on pictures and profiles simply because they are put on the screen in front of them. By far the weirdest element of the News Feed is the fact that the comments people write on other people's walls show up on your Facebook homepage. I have found that what would be humorous between two friends gets invasive on the News Feed when you find yourself reading a conversation between two people you barely know; unfortunately Facebook doesn't differentiate between someone you actually talk to and the person you 'friended' the first day of freshman year.
There is no question that Facebook plays a prominent role in the social life of college campuses. The question we have to ask ourselves is: How far is this going to go? Like AIM, Facebook has added a new dimension to human relations. There is no longer that uncertainty as to whether you should call the person you met last night or even IM them, instead you can friend them on Facebook, thus initiating a relationship that can be followed by the ever popular line, "Aren't we Facebook friends?" However, with the News Feed, everyone must keep in mind that the person they friended yesterday afternoon will not only appear on each of their 'friend's' News Feeds, but on their Mini Feed and the Mini Feed of the person they are friends with. The intricacies, complications and controversy surrounding this new Facebook are simply not worth it.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stated in his recent open letter, "When we launched News Feed and Mini-Feed we were trying to provide you with a stream of information about your social world." Well, they certainly accomplished this but they went a little too far. Immediately after the initial appearance of the News Feeds, groups started to appear in opposition to the new Facebook, the largest of which was "Students Against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)" which quickly accumulated nearly 750,000 members. Other groups range in designation from "Facebook is becoming CREEPY" to "Stalking Should be Hard" to the group I recently got invited to, "We forgive you Facebook, Let's have Make-up Sex!" While some people find it interesting to know every detail of their 'friends' lives on Facebook, I find it slightly disturbing when I'm alerted as to the nature of other people's wall conversations, which I can then choose to view in full thanks to the super-creepy wall-to-wall feature.
I commend Zuckerberg's attempt to amend the problem by creating privacy options that allow users to limit the information they want published on the feeds, but in the long run these won't be enough. In a public forum such as Facebook, one can only expect so much privacy; but is it really necessary to make every move, every conversation, every detail so advertised?
All in all though, I have to admit: Facebook is pretty awesome. It keeps you connected to the friends you have left back home and allows you to know more about the people you are living with today. It lets you see crazy pictures, revisit the good times, crack corny and obscene jokes, stalk potentially hot people of the opposite sex, waste vast and unbelievable amounts of time and last but not least, bond over the annoying s--t the Facebook creators sometimes insist on doing to something that was already so perfect.
Ball is a sophomore. According to Facebook, her interests include "tanning with spf 4, driving like a maniac when hungry, loud music, sarcasm, tuna sushi, beating people at pool, the beach, sugar, shopping at random shops, getting lost, skiing and french vogue."