Done Wrong!
It’s been a mostly uneventful past few days. I had a great Labor Day, though that too was nearly completely unremarkable. I drove up to see my dad in Mishicot, spending Friday and Saturday night there. We didn’t do much at all: a little shopping, a little cribbage playing, a little antique shopping (during which I was unable to find the old suitcases I wanted). We went for a nice walk over at Point Beach State Forest, a favorite park right near Mishicot. Sunday, I came back, did some grocery shopping, and mostly just sat around. On Monday, Katie and I went out to lunch. But that was about it. Work has been fun all week long, as usual, and here it is, almost the weekend again. Saturday, I’ll head to Milwaukee to celebrate my cousin Sara’s 14th birthday! 14! Can you believe it?
So, with nothing else really to write about, I guess I’ll focus on something that had me riled up Tuesday and Wednesday. I hate to write about facebook too much on this blog, but their recent changes have really got me irked. For those of you out of the loop, here’s what they did. A new feature (the News Feed and the Mini Feed) now capture every action you take on facebook (from writing on someone’s wall, to adding new friends, to changes in your relationship status) and compile them in a list visible from your Home screen (your friends’ actions display there) and your profile (your actions). This suddenly makes facebook seem a lot more creepy and enables stalking to a much higher level.
When I noticed the change (which went into effect around 2 AM Tuesday morning) around 6 AM on Tuesday, I immediately joined a couple groups against the new changes. Later during that morning, I joined another group that quickly grew to (as of writing this) over 700,000 members. As facebook only has 8-9 million users, this is obviously quite a large contingent of people against the new changes. I also wrote messages to facebook, telling them how unhappy I was with the changes. My basic argument goes like this. Before feeds, facebook was about me, an individual user. I chose what information I put out there. I made choices for my actions based on how public or private they were. I could comment on a photograph of someone else, knowing that no one was likely to notice it. I felt in control of my own facebook profile. Come these feeds, however, nearly all my actions are put on the same level. I can no longer write on someone’s wall without announcing that activity to the whole world. Facebook suddenly became about everyone else and their abilities to watch what I do. That is very uncomfortable.
I believe that they will make changes eventually, and give you the ability to turn off the feeds. And according to a recent update I have read, this change will be implemented as early as tomorrow. This seems like success. I will be glad if this happens, and sad if it doesn’t, because facebook, for me, became something very unique – it’s a way to keep in touch, keep connected, without doing anything at all.
Those who know me, know that I haven’t kept up with very many of my high school classmates. I can only call Zach and Tony truly friends anymore, because they are the only people from high school whom which I have regular contact. But I know what my high school classmates (and friends then) are up to these days, because they post that information and allow me to see it. It’s nice to stay up on what’s going on in their lives, so that when I see them (as I did in August) we are not complete strangers. There is a common ground, even as we see each other very seldom, and never have any other direct contact. It’s also a way for me to keep in touch with people who I can’t see on a daily basis – friends who have lives different from mine. Those working, moving away, still in school, and so on, remain connected to me, through facebook. That is something I was scared to lose. The informal connection and outlets of communication are very important to me.
And as I was thinking dark thoughts about not being able to have this connection anymore (over-dramatic as it may sound, I really was thinking about removing my account because of the new “feature”), I started to think – maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to not have facebook. True, I only spend a half an hour or so checking facebook everyday, but it has, in the past, caused me a deal of stress, as I wait for someone to write a message back to me, or am annoyed when no one has an updated profile for me to look at. And maybe losing that stress (stupid as it is) in exchange for losing the digital connection wouldn’t be such a bad thing?
If anything has changed, thru this whole ordeal, whether I am allowed to turn off the features or not, I still feel that a little of my love for facebook has died. It’s like dating someone, breaking up, and then becoming friends again. You always retain a little of that bitterness, a little bit of the feeling that you know something about that person that they do not share with the world, a dark side, hidden away. I see that dark side of facebook now. I don’t think our relationship can ever be the same.
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September 8th, 2006 14:53
Thankfully they’ve made some changes today. In fact, I think the whole process was actually quite inspiring. An authority created a policy, the people it affected weren’t happy with it so they organized, and the authority responded quickly to make ammends. Oh how I wish our government could work the same way. How about creating a successful plan for Irag, Congress? How about pushing for universal health care, Mr. President? I want results ASAP!