The Quadrangle

Issue date: 10/1/08 Section: Op Ed

Fear, panic and uncertainty struck college students all around the country as the formatting for facebook changed over to the "new" format. These students failed to realize that they are better off; change is always good and in this case, it is monumental.

If you are a stalker who likes to creep on facebook (Matt Coyne) and look at the kid you have not seen since middle school, then you will be emotionally distraught with the new facebook. Its features are harder to use, making life for the no-life that much more difficult. But, with due time, these people will realize that it's more stalker friendly.

If you are somebody like me, who does not have hours to spend on facebook, then you will be quite pleased with the efficiency of the new facebook. Everything is consolidated and easier to use.

Applications are back to being applications and are not dominating the whole page. Facebook's original demise came when they let high school kids on. Its next demise occurred when they allowed applications to be run.

At least now they have calmed the applications. A user does not have to go crazy looking for somebody's wall as they sift through an application that might say, "I am Paris Hilton's boobs: Which celebrity's boobs are you?"

Now facebook is as simple as clicking a tab to see somebody's wall, info or applications. If a user wants to see somebody's info, they can click the tab and read; it is that simple. No more searching with frustration to figure out what somebody's favorite quotes are (an underrated aspect of facebook).

Facebook also smartened up and did away with showing your friends by network. This helps to settle popularity contests. Who cares how many people you know at MC? The bigger question is how many people do you know in the whole world.

Status feeds are now included in a user's wall along with recently updated pictures. This makes using facebook for the normal person convenient. All a normal user needs to do on facebook is look through a few pictures, write status updates and say hello to a few friends on their walls. Everything else is just gravy.

For the stalkers who feel out of place with the new facebook, I will let you in on a little secret. There is a feature called the "live feed" which enables you to see every action of all your friends as they are coming in by the second.

This pretty much gives a user as much access into somebody's personal lives as the federal government does through the Patriot Act. There may be hope for you creeps after all.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools