The new Facebook has been a common topic lately. I constantly hear friends complaining about how Facebook tries to prevent its members from leaving the network (like what happened to Xanga) by keeping everything new and fresh. (Digression: in economics term, this is probably related to the issue of “network externality” which means that the amount of users of a product would make something more or less valuable to other potential consumers).Anyway…Honestly, I do not like it at all. It took a while to get used to the old layout and now they're introducing the new thing. There was not much privacy in the old Facebook especially with its “Wall to Wall” function. And now it’s even worse. As many of you may know it already, whenever you write on a friend’s wall, your comment shows right on top of their page- there is no need to even scroll down to the “Wall” for others to see your comment. Some employers now do searches on social networks like myspace and facebook to check out their potential employees. Some information you think is restricted to your circle of close friends may be widely viewed when something about you ends up in their feeds. Maybe having a feed isn't such a good idea. This made me realize that you really don’t have much privacy on the internet. It’s kind of scary to even think that some people might be looking at your profile or your pictures all day long… and that my boss could be reading my complaints about work. Another thing is that I have noticed after the change from the old to new Facebook is that I really detest changes in my life. I’d rather not use the Facebook now, than to deal with the new layout of it.
What do you think of the new Facebook?
By kl993 - Posted on October 3rd, 2008
That's what privacy settings are for. Most of the time, the only thing that shows up in news feeds other than your friends is when you do something like tag a friend two people have in common. My pictures, for instance, are set so that only friends of friends can see them, so that if I tag someone, and one of their friends wants to go through their pictures, they'll be able to see my pictures as well. But no one who is not my friend (or in my college network, though I'll probably be changing that soon, just because I don't know many other people at my college) can see my profile; they can just see what networks I'm in, my name, and my profile picture.
Besides, if you're stupid enough to put something up on the internet you don't want other people finding, then... you probably don't deserve that job.
As a side note... this isn't particularly progressive. Maybe if you focused on the privacy on the internet thing a little more it would fit...
~C
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