Facebook, the virtual stalking device that started out as an online yearbook, has once again reformatted its interface, causing quite a stir among its many millions of users.
This time the outrage was not nearly as vocal as it was with the introduction of “newsfeed” back in 2006, when the website catapulted to the forefront of full-on stalking devices, but the new redesign has taken the site another step closer to being 100 percent newsfeed-centric. With the feed design, which allows anyone and everyone to find out information about anyone and everything &-&- from your whereabouts this upcoming weekend to the online activity of a lost lover &-&- the social networking site has forever changed social interactions as we know them, allowing us to keep abbreviated relationships with endless amounts of people, as opposed to intimate ones with those we actually care about.
But aside from the impact the website has had on our generation, and maybe even now our entire population (admit it, your parents are on Facebook, and if you’re lucky you’re friends with Grandma), we’ll continue to use it to no end, exhausting the zillions of possible connections to be made, all the while entertaining this constant disconnect between ourselves and the people we see on a daily basis because of it.
That said, the real problem with this time-sucking, procrastination tool might not even be the morality of the habits it seems to create, but instead the awful changes it continues to force on users. The new layout, redesigned buttons, ever-changing privacy policies and different “user-friendly” features keeps us coming back to check out the same old content wrapped in unfamiliar, confusing new packages.
Our advice to Facebook: chill out. When a product is one of the more successful ones in the world, why mess with it? The formula for success is clearly working; there is no need to make these sweeping, frequent changes. Users, or customers even, are addicted to a routine that includes logging in on an hourly basis, and even the simplest move of a button or word-change can easily disrupt mindless clicking habits, sending the average Internet denizen into a panic.
To make it simple: keep it simple, Facebook. Changes are necessary once in a while, but with our Facebook addictions as bad as they are, complete site overhauls every few months are really putting a damper on our day.
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