The "New" Facebook

While we read the article Brave New World of Digital Intimacy by Clive Thompson a few weeks ago for our first online class, I have repeatedly been thinking back to it almost every day I sign into Facebook. I think most of us are aware of the “New” Facebook and for me personally, I’ve noted a lot of negative comments about it, typically that people hate it. In looking to reasons people leave for this hate, I really could only come up with one concrete reason, a report of an individual having trouble using Facebook now due to the Digital Divide. Well, there actually are two reasons, that one, and how us creatures of habit simply fight change. Will those petitioning about how bad Facebook is win out in the end?

Every time I see someone post that for an update or on a wall or some where on Facebook, I think to all the controversy Thompson noted in the article that Facebook faced when they started the News Feed. Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, was directly quoted in saying that Facebook does indeed try to push the envelope. Certainly, they are pushing it again as they have unveiled the “New” and “Only” Facebook (while I have not bothered to spend the time to confirm this, I have noted that you can go back to the “Old” Facebook) within the last week.

Personally, I guess I don’t care either way and honestly, I am not so sure what people are so upset about. Trying to make sense of it, I logged on to my own account and searched “hate new facebook.” There are six groups so far that you can join in the mission to hate it… I clicked to view the one with over 1,000,000 members to read the comments. There are 20 reasons listed as to why it should be hated. I liked how, before the list began, there was what appears to be a disclaimer that states “First of all, it's NOT because we don't want change.. it's because THE CHANGE IS BAD). Obviously these people aren’t designers and to me, that statement flat out says, we just hate adjusting to change. If the reasons they list would have confirmed the reasons for Facebook being so bad, surely they wouldn’t have had to make sure we know they don’t dislike change….

But really, I am trying to stay on the fence here. Read the reasons for yourself. Feel free to comment on why you’re on one side or the other or what you think of this “list.” For me, it boiled down to not wanting to accept change. Then I got to reason number 17 – finally someone made a good point that is worth Facebook taking the time to look into:

17- "It does not support old windows 98 systems, even those with Opera browsers. If you've got an internet explorer browser, then you're just plain out of luck!
Guess what... there's still plenty of us out there who are not that rich, own an old computer and like it just fine. We're basically being kicked out of Facebook which is a shame. I too thought Facebook was different!? I'm willing to bet that the change has a whole lot more to do with accomodating advertisers and how to get even more of them on here!" Diane Courchesne (Halifax, NS)

I feel fortunate to be able to keep up with most of the latest technology online. Unfortunately, I know many are not. I feel for many more years we are going to see that, especially with the state of the economy and people moving towards a more conservative nature in their spending habits. We have touched on this already in our readings for the course, too. The “Digital Divide” is huge and likely always be a factor.

As we all know at this point from history is that Facebook did get its followers to love the News Feed, leading to a social phenomenon of ambient awareness. People love knowing what their friends are doing and being able to quickly check in on Facebook has allowed this. While I do not foresee Facebook’s upgrade causing any big turn in society or a way of socializing, I think it will be an interesting few months ahead to see if these haters of Facebook have enough influence to change the minds of the gurus of Facebook. Will they completely change the changes they have done? Or will we slowly, we creatures of habit, give in and accept change? I’m willing to bet Facebook will iron out the technological glitches, such as those plaguing Diane in NS, and we’ll all go on being just fine with the “New” Facebook.