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Facebook woes ain't so bad

When I first heard about Facebook two years ago, I was most certainly against it. I believe that it would fuel the already-raging fire , of insipid self expression of my generation. I viewed AIM profiles with a sneering disgust and Facebook profiles were perfectly aligned to be the new forefront for air-headed sorority girls giving shoutouts to her ho's in high school. I imagined Facebook was only for one specific demographic: losers. If you didn't have a life, you would most likely love the endless worthlessness that Facebook would offer.

So as you can tell, I was much more of a cynic back then. Under the orders of my then-girlfriend, I reluctantly joined up a couple months later. Since then, a lot has changed. Facebook's network has grown outside the collegiate world, into corporations and high schools. Numerous features have been added like photo albums, geographical networks, and retooling the "Wall".

Personally, my love for the site has grown as well. I had it wrong in the beginning: Losers don't use Facebook, Cool people AND losers use Facebook. Everyone's on facebook. That's what makes it great. You can be a bare minimum member, who only joined just to see who else is listed. Or you could be an all-out stalk-a-holic, constantly checking profiles and leaving notes and joining groups. What's more, all of the features that Facebook offers is presented without excessive clutter or confusion. Where MySpace's layouts have devolved to the point of the incoherant, Facebook manages to supply all the content without any tangled mess of links pages.

Last month, Facebook underwent some of its most drastic changes to date. Each one of these changes was met with public backlash. First they opened up membership to nearly anyone as long as they are invited. I was suprised to see several friends of mine who joined "Facebook sucks for opening up its membership" clubs to emphasize their stance. Although you have to admit, joining a Facebook group to protest Facebook is a silly contradiction, kinda like forming a pro-gun legislation caucuas at your NRA meetings. I think we all believed that this deregulation would allow a flood of creeps and weirdos to haunt the Facebook universe. As it turns out, it did just the opposite. Just today I was be-friended by a guy from Middle School. I haven't spoken to the bloke for eight years. Thanks to Facebook opening up the gates, we are now re-connected. Granted, a Facebook-friend is the weakest connection imaginable, but it's a connection none the less. And maybe I'm reveling too much in nostalgia to realize that he adding me as a friend doesn't really mean anything anyway. All the same, it felt good to get that notification email. It feels good to be remembered. If Facebook hadn't had changed the rules on membership, I would have never known he was even alive.

Identities for sale

Somewhere along the line, the admins let certain companies scratching to get at the huge 18-22 demographic Facebook offers. Basically your account was open to the snooping of these companies. A greater form of advertising was let in. A couple weeks ago I received an email (thanks Regan) informing me how to disable other websites from using my information. While It was never outright explained to me via the website, Facebook should be recognized for having some ethics. Given the opportunity, I am certain that selling the information of the millions of Facebook accounts would bring in a huge amount of revenue. Although we use the site under the assumption that our accounts are "ours," in the end, it all belongs to Zuckerberg. I've got to say, I'm impressed they even offered the option. Granted the option is hidden within your account settings, but all the same, it was easy enough to turn off. No big deal. Me and the FB are still on the level. What's more, companies like BillMonk might actually be pretty helpful.

News Feed: Shamelessly addicting

The News Feed is a great idea. Facebook automatically aggregates all the changes and additions made by your friends on one simple page. Friends see if you add a new photo album, make a new friend, add a message on someone's wall, change your relationship status, basically anything. It takes out all the hassle of scouring friend's pages looking to see if they've made any changes since you last visited 15 minutes ago. As if it weren't easy enough, no effort required. I love it. All the little things that make Facebook worth checking in right there on one page.

As stated in the Wired article, where Facebook erred was in automatically having all of these options turned on. Every other addition to facebook (Events, Photo albums, networks) were made available and members had the option to use them as they saw fit. This time, they automatically programmed the module so that everything was made public.

What is most impressive with the folks at FB is how fast they managed to rehaul the system. Within a couple days options were offered to make all your settings private. I couldn't imagine the kind of system-wide retooling such an effort would require, but I would imagine it would be enourmous. And there wasn't any debate. The public spoke and Zuckerburg was quick to act. Gotta love the kid for that much at least.

I imagine that the same number of my colleages that resisted the changes at first are still using Facebook now, probably more than ever. As Web 2.0 and the IM generation grows, social-networking will become an ever greater facet of our existence. For the time being, Facebook is able to keep up developments and provide the number one stalker dwelling hole for me.