Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck

This article was really interesting because it’s not often that readings assigned in school are about something we actually went through. I remember when facebook added the news feed. Everyone’s reaction was pretty much exactly what the article described. Now I think everyone has accepted it as part of facebook and for the most part people are ok with it. The privacy options help the situation alot though. I would definitely not like everything that I do on facebook posted on the feed, not that I do anything I’m ashamed of, I just don’t like the idea of being tracked. But the fact that we can now choose what goes on there is ok with me. And I do find it interesting to read the feed once in a while when I’m bored. However I agree with what the article said about people getting a false sense of knowing their “friends” on facebook. The majority of my friends on facebook are just aquaitences and when you continuously see the same people with stories on the feed you start to feel like you know the person when in actuality you don’t. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but like the article mentioned there’s always the crush factor. People can follow their crush on facebook and start to feel like they know the person when the other person may have no idea who they are. It sounds like it could be a slightly annoying situation, but nothing major unless the person becomes obsessive. That is also an issue with the news feed. Websites like facebook/myspace leave people very susceptible to stalking (or at least internet stalking) as it is, but the feed just throws everything out there and makes it so much easier and possibly even tempting for people with stalker-like behaviors.

Another thing I don’t like about the feed is that it makes it too easy to stay in the loop. You don’t even have to leave your room or talk to anyone anymore to stay in the loop. But is that really being in the loop? Is sitting in front of a computer screen reading about other people’s lives the same as being involved with other people’s lives? And talking and spending time with other people? The internet and computers are amazing technologies but it worries me because they make life too easy. You can do almost everything at home sitting in front of the computer. I honestly fear that the internet might some day replace in-person communities. What if someday people don’t go out and do things at all? They go to school online, work online, buy everything online and have it delivered to their house, and even socialize online. People would just stay home all day everyday. I realize that is a bit extreme but hopefully you can see my point.

I’ll take the $1 Billion

I’d have to agree that turning down $1 Billion and being successful was purely coincidental. Everyone knows the saying that hindsight is 20/20 but it seems like Zuckerberg has built his own success. First with the News feed that was controversial and now with the new design that has been so controversial.

The reason MySpace might slowly be tapering off is because it fails to innovate enough. The jumps in the amount of users always comes after Facebook makes a huge change. First, after the initial dismay over the news feed then the acceptance of it, the users grew. Then, after it was opened to everyone rather than just college students, the users grew. Finally the users grew when all of these applications, which are still expanding, started to show up.

While this new design that is being talked about is widely disapproved of, it may be the next step of Facebook growth. People’s initial reaction to change in anything is that they “hate it,” then, if the program is designed properly, people get used to it and begin to like its features.

Moral of the story is that Zuckerberg always seems to know the proper time of when to freshen things up. If he can keep Facebook “hip” then the users will continue to join.

Mark Zuckerberg, genius or idiot?

  I may be a little late on the critique of one of the first article’s we read about Mark Zuckerberg and his infamous turning down of $1 billion (who does that? oh right, a Harvard drop out), but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a few thoughts on it.

First of all, I think that Facebook has obviously changed all of our lives. As college students, what is a day without going to our Facebook bookmark and logging in to see who broke up, hooked up or is writing on each others’ walls. It’s become an addiction and Mark Zuckerberg is making money off of that. More power to him, I say. He came up with an idea that made our lives easier by allowing easy connection to those we might or might not see everyday and gave us something to do.

However, I think that I disagree with the people that think that turning down $1billion was a smart idea. Sure, at the time it was because now Facebook is worth double or more of that. However, I feel like now no one is going to pay him Bill Gates- style money for that site. Sure, more and more people are signing onto Facebook and advertising for the Facebook people must pay a pretty penny. But, think about it. Myspace had its glorious days, and now it’s slowly dying. People are using it less and less and at some point it will be Facebook that ruled the world. But I think sometime within the next two years, the Facebook generation that was created four years ago will fade out, get jobs and start their lives outside of Facebook. So, unless the following generation is able to keep up where the previous left off, Facebook will be in a whole world of hurt.

Was Zuckerberg stupid for passing on $1billion? No. But if I were him, I’d start selling some assets real soon.

Could you turn down $1 billion dollars?

As a poor college student it’s amazing and difficult to imagine ever being in the position to turn down an offer of $1 billion dollar because you think you might be able do a little better. Like the vast majority of great inventions, Facebook started off as a relatively simple and obvious way of solving a very common problem: in this particular instance, how to keep in touch with your friends and family in this fragmented world. I was

Facebook News Feed

introduced to Facebook by a friend in late 2004 when very few people had heard of Facebook, let alone considered it a legitimate contender to topple the MySpace-giant that already ruled the internet. In my opinion, the vast majority of Facebook’s success is due to the fact that they got in on the ground floor of what was soon to become known as the “web 2.0″ phenmenon long before it was a trendy buzzword.

The article discussed Zuckerberg’s attempt at streamlining the process of keeping up to date with friends and family. Although his news feed feature was massively controversial, it has arguably been the single most used feature on Facebook since the day it was added. I would venture to guess that most avid Facebook users have long since come to terms with the feeling of their privacy being invaded by the feature, and instead they see the news feed as an indespensible part of why they continue to return to Facebook.