Facebook evolution: from efficient to eerie
MySpace, Twitter, Tumblr, Formspring, and Facebook. There is no doubt that social networking has evolved tremendously over the past few years to a point where these sites seem to dominate society today.
Facebook has revised its entire site, added new features and applications, and even updated all of its users to its new profile. Some of these changes may be making it even easier for complete strangers to access personal information, including a recent feature added that allows users to update their location status, which appears on their Wall and friends’ newsfeeds.
“I personally don’t use the location [feature], but I’ve seen other people [use it]; its popped up, and I find that a little too personal, a little unnecessary,” says freshman Annika Ulrich.
“I mean if you choose to do that, then it’s up to you,” says junior Dustan Li, taking the indifferent route when it comes to Facebook applications.
The locator feature is not the only thing adding to the privacy dilemma affecting Facebook usage.
“I thought it was kind of creepy. I don’t want to know everything there is to know about someone,” says senior Hannah Hibbs about the ‘See Friendships’ option.
Sophomore Shantell Montuya says that she does not have a Facebook account “because I know there’s a lot of drama happening on there, and I don’t want to be in it.”
The fear of being overexposed on the Internet has grown along with all of these recent changes. Students are more aware of how these networking sites have affected their daily lives. “I deleted [my Facebook] because we watched a movie in Economics class about how it’s basically taking over the world and how extremely accessible it is becoming for anyone to see anything about you. It creeped me out,” says Hibbs.
While some are not as ready and willing to call it quits with Facebook altogether, they are still finding reasons to resist its evolution. “I don’t like how Facebook changes things. It just makes everything too complicated to relearn,” Hibbs explains.
When discussing the new profile, junior Stacy Ozorio says, “I like the old one better. This one, I think, displays too much of your information on the top.” “I don’t really use any of the applications. I just like to have quick contact with a wide range of people,” explains Ulrich. She says the reason she has a Facebook is “because I know our class events like our fundraiser was announced on [it], and I felt like it was kind of necessary to keep up with current happenings.”
Others love Facebook for its easy access to friends. “A lot of the time people don’t have texting and I’m not really a phone caller for little things. And now people are on Facebook all the time, so it’s easier to contact them,” Ozorio explains.
Ultimately, the issues of privacy are at the discretion of the users, and what may appear to be an unnecessary disclosure of information to one may appear critical facts to another. The topic of whether this social networking site has created a stalking evolution merely depends on how one wishes to utilize their Facebook.
