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Facebook feature causes dispute

Sept. 6, 2006

Photo illustration by Henry Chan

By BRAD BRIGGS
Reporter

Facebook.com users logged on to find some surprising changes Tuesday.

The new home page has a feature called News Feed, which allows users to view the updated activity of their friends.

After logging in, users are directed to the new homepage for their profile where they can see new photos, wall messages, status updates and groups joined. The feed is constantly updated and "highlights relevant information about people and activities they have been involved in and items of interest to a user," according to Facebook Feed's Frequently Asked Questions.

Another new feature is called Mini-Feed, which updates the user on all of the recent activities of an individual user.

Facebook.com users are not warming up to the change.

"It's becoming too stalker-ish," Mesquite junior Ashley Bristow said. "It makes me uncomfortable to see all of this information about my friends and to know that they can see all of the same stuff about me."

Many other Facebook users agree. As of Tuesday, hundreds of groups have been formed protesting the new format. One group formed by a Baylor user, "I Hate the New Facebook (Stalker) Layout" already has more than 3,300 members as of 10 p.m. Tuesday.

"We listened to the requests of our users," Facebook.com FAQ stated as the reason why Web site decided on the change. "In addition, we expect News Feed and Mini Feed to be hugely popular with Facebook users," it states.

Dr. Michael Korpi, Professor of communication studies, thinks that it is "pretty cool." "In general I think they're on to something," he said.

Korpi said he thinks it will help users connect with one another more easily by tailoring the site's content to students' preferences.

"It might make people more careful about what groups they join or messages they send, but Facebook seems to be pretty responsive to user input," Korpi said.

While the initial negative reactions of some people may just be due to change, others - including Sachse senior Zach Nader- have gone so far as to send e-mails to Facebook voicing their anger or even asking to be removed from the service.

"I would like to know if I can opt out of the amazingly creepy service that updates everyone on every single posting and movement I make," Nader wrote. "I enjoy Facebook, but don't want people being updated with this information and really don't want to see others."

A reply from the Web site states, "We think that once you become familiar with the new layout and features, you will find these changes just as useful as past improvements such as Photos, Groups and the Wall."

The e-mail also mentions that it is not possible to turn off the Mini Feed feature, but users can hide individual stories that appear on the feed about them.

"Facebook prides itself in giving users complete control over the information that they share with others," the representative said in the e-mail.

Brian Veloso, a Web designer from Banning, Calif., created the new version and is also a Facebook user.

He was employed by Facebook until May before he moved on to other work.

Tuesday, an online petition was created to encourage the owners of Facebook to either drop the News Feed and Mini Feed features, or to remove themselves from other's feeds.

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