So Facebook finally went live with it’s latest design and as expected, the backlash began right away. Search Facebook Groups for “new Facebook” and you’ll see results such as “I HATE THE NEW FACEBOOK (STALKER) Layout” or “The New Facebook Sucks!” or “I Hate the New Facebook”. Looking at most of these groups, it is clear that these people are misunderstanding what Facebook is meant to be.
The most common complaint is that Facebook has become more “stalker”-like. I find this claim invalid because Facebook is foremost a “social networking” website. Facebook in it’s About page says:
Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.
Facebook provides the means to do exactly what it describes. Furthermore, all the information displayed on Facebook is completely voluntary. You even have complete control over who gets to see what information by tweaking the privacy settings. Beyond this, however, the concept of social media isn’t fully understood by everyone it seems. To that, Common Craft has put together a nice video that helps explain it:
So my point is, Facebook is a site meant to foster interaction, hence the Twitter-like newsfeed and wall. Another complaint I’ve seen is that people were familiar with the old layout and claim the new one leaves them lost. To this notion, people need to realize that change is always occurring. The new layout is better suited to it’s social fuctions. Even so, Facebook gives users the option to filter the new Facebook wall to show only newsfeed items or wall posts or even revert back to the older layout. Personally, I think that the new layout is much better suited to widescreen displays (which are becoming increasingly prevalent) and also, the tabbed profile pages means I don’t have to scroll through endless applications to find a friend’s wall; the user interface is much more consistent now.
All that being said, I know the Hateorade will continue to be poured. What I’m really interested in knowing is how Facebook will fare as the most of the current college students (Facebook’s primary demographic) age I’m nearly 20 and I still find myself on Facebook quite often so we’ll see what happens when I’m 25 or 30. In the meantime, what are your thoughts on Facebook?
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