With over 800 million active users, Facebook knows it must keep updating the site to make sure it keeps its position as one of the top social media sites in the world.
However, the constant updates are frustrated some users because just when the public gets used to the “new Facebook,” the site launches a completely new profile and settings that confuse the users even more. This leads many users to question if these updates are really necessary, or are they just a nuisance that Facebook creates to keep up with other social networking sites like Google Plus?
The overall consensus seems to be that while some of the new features, launched late September, are beneficial, others seem a little over the top or unnecessary.
One new feature that seems to be useful is the modified privacy settings, where you can now choose who can see each part of your profile, such as your birthday or hometown, or who has access to your pictures or statuses.
“Changes in privacy settings are good because it gives users more control over who can see their profiles,” said assistant professor Kalyani Chadha, Director of the College Park Scholars Media, Self, and Society Program at the University of Maryland.
Chadha added that the new privacy settings are unlike past Facebook changes that left profiles more open to strangers. “I don’t think you always want people to see you had a party or something, and you especially want to keep your personal lives separate and not risk employers seeing things,” Chadha said.
The privacy settings also allow users protection from nosy relatives or overly excited parents. “My dad really enjoys commenting on everything I post on Facebook,” said Samantha Piccirillo, sophomore journalism major at UMD. “So now I only allow him to see one status every week so I’m not bombarded with his weird comments.”
Zeke Waisel, a sophomore chemical engineering major at UMD agreed, saying, “The new privacy settings help protect unwanted viewers from accessing aspects of your profile or life.” However, one thing he wished was still accessible on Facebook was the option to click “invisible” for Facebook chat so that people could not see when he was on if he didn’t want to be contacted.
Another feature receiving mixed feelings from both faculty and students is the addition of the Facebook timeline, which gives what Facebook determines as the “top stories” first, followed by the most recent stories since the last time a user visited.
“I find the timeline feature that gives you the most recent tag or post very creepy,” Waisel said. “It takes Facebook stalking to a new level.”
Piccirillo had similar feelings, saying that this feature is a little unnecessary. “I don’t need to know what everyone likes, who is listening to a song, who commented on someone’s wall,” she said. “I think it’s kind of social media overkill.”
However, this new feature allows Facebook users to share their interests or see news articles or books that others are reading, Chadha said. “Seeing what people are reading, especially in regards to news, is interesting to me because it gives me insight into what people like to know about,” he said. “Not everyone might want to know about the news, but it is useful to me.”
One thing all agreed upon was that Facebook definitely made more of an effort to explain the new features and make sure users were aware of them. In the past, Facebook has changed the entire look of the profile and settings without notification, which was frustrating, Chadha said.
“When the privacy settings were first introduced, they were advertised on my homepage, so I found out there,” Piccirillo said. “I don’t really use them so much but I know they’re there if I ever wanted to.”
Waisel added it was nice that Facebook gave a whole walk-through of the new features. “I went to investigate slightly and adjusted some of my settings to better protect me,” Waisel said.
Although Facebook made an effort to notify and explain the changes, Chadha pointed out that she, like many other people she knows, don’t really pay attention to the messages Facebook puts out because they sometimes get annoying and overused. Rather, she said she learned about Facebook’s new features mainly from news articles she read describing them.
A benefit of the new features, Piccirillo said, is that Facebook allows users the choice to use some of the new settings or not. “Even though the new timeline is kind of annoying, I like the new Facebook features overall because people can choose to use them or not instead of being forced to use them,” Piccirillo said. “If someone wants to keep his or her profile private for certain reasons, then they’ll make it their priority to do so.”