An epic battle between Facebook purists and students who favor the new “News Feeds” has begun. Now upon logging in, Facebook users can peruse a laundry list of recent events taking place in the lives of their friends, from hook-ups to break-ups. Each of these recent updates comes complete with a small icon to illustrate sometimes scandalous changes to the user’s profile. The recent changes to Facebook sparked some of the fastest growing protest groups in the history of the site. Unfortunately, student response to the changes seems disproportionately harsh for a system that, for most, has no other purpose than to snoop on fellow classmates.
In just a few days, members started dozens of groups against the changes, like “Students against Facebook News Feeds (Official Petition to Facebook),” which already counts more than 350,000 members.
Interestingly, the new feature has struck a nerve with students who feel suddenly exposed by the ability of others to track their every move on the website. While most agree that half the fun of Facebook is peeking in on the lives of friends, this new feature brings online voyeurism to a new level that makes even the most ardent user uncomfortable. But why the sudden uproar? This new feature doesn’t share any additional information; it just presents it in a new way and students are already aware of the dangers associated with posting overly-personal information.
If the point of the website is to network, then those users must understand that others can see whatever they post. It has always been risky to post personal information on Facebook, and it is no different now. Last fall, Northern Kentucky University administrators disciplined a student for underage drinking after discovering incriminating photos of her in a Facebook album. When users saw that there could be consequences to what they posted, they began to more closely monitor their Facebook profiles or privatized their accounts altogether. If users still find the availability of their personal information unsettling, perhaps it is time to logout for good.
Ultimately, we should remember that Facebook is not actually affiliated with the university and doesn’t need to take into consideration its user’s protests. Mark Zuckerberg decided to tweak Facebook and if students are unhappy with the results they can poke around other networking sites.
It seems ironic that angry students would protest this new, intrusive feature by starting yet another complaint group in the virtual world created by Facebook.
If the new Facebook feature is really infuriating, don’t propagate its usage; just delete your account.