David-Ezra Shamash uploaded a mobile photo. Kevin M. Bambino is no longer in a complicated relationship. If you have recently logged on to Facebook.com, then postings like these recently greeted you on your homepage.
Called News-Feed and Mini-Feed, Facebook.com has recently added these new features, according to a spokesperson, at the behest of users.
"We listened to the requests of our users," said a statement from the wildly popular networking website. "We expect News-Feed and Mini-Feed to be hugely popular with Facebook users."
News-feed offers the ability to track almost all changes to friends' profiles right on the initial log-in page. The Mini-Feed is a new section within profiles that shows a log of recent changes to that profile as well as that particular user's recent activity.
But the buzz created here on the hill and online on the Facebook website suggests otherwise. In an upshot of global Facebook groups like "I am about to delete my Facebook profile" and "Students against Facebook News Feed," students from all over the nation seem enraged.
According to a Time magazine online article from yesterday, within 24 hours of the change, hundreds of thousands of Facebook users had mobilized online against the change. The article calls the changes "intrusive" and notes that the News-Feed feature can't be turned off.
"I feel like a stalker just by logging on to Facebook," said Tufts junior Abby Holtz. "I don't really need to know who's not single anymore as soon as I log on." Holtz would prefer the News-Feed to be replaced by a sidebar instead of being located on the homepage.
Sophomore Eduardo Sanchez agrees with Holtz.
"Half the fun of Facebook is surfing through the network looking for interesting things," said Sanchez. "It's over the top, and nobody likes it."
In a statement from the Palo Alto based website, a spokesperson said "News-feed and Mini-feed will provide [users] with recent and relevant information about the people they care about in an efficient and effective way."
On Facebook's official blog, Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted an entry titled, "Calm Down. Breathe. We hear you." in which he acknowledges the backlash from users.
"We think they are great products, but we know that many of you are not immediate fans, and have found them overwhelming and cluttered," wrote Zuckerberg. "We are listening to all your suggestions about how to improve the product."
Used by over 9 million students, graduates, and faculty/staff members around the world, Facebook is the seventh most visited site on the internet.
(For more on the new "improvements," see Viewpoints, page 9)
- James Bologna
