Tag: Facebook

Facebook’s News Feed Redesign

Posted on by Brian Lee

On Thursday, Facebook announced a major redesign of its News Feed. This redesign is the first major change to the News Feed since Facebook came into existence.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement, “News Feed is one of the most important services that we build.”

The most noticeable change is that content and pictures will be bigger. Users will also be able to choose different versions of the News Feed they are viewing, by switching between options such as photos, all friends, most recent, etc. Facebook said the idea behind the different versions of the News Feed is to give users more control over what they are seeing.

Personally, I think this change could mean the end of seeing endless updates from “that person you met once four years ago.” Of course, you could just un-friend those people, but the advantage of having several friends is it provides a way to keep connections, even if you are unsure of when you may want to use them.

Facebook representatives said that more than 70 employees have been working on the redesign for more than a year, but they understand that users may be apprehensive to change at first. This means that only a small portion of Facebook users currently have the redesigned News Feed.

One other question I have is how the changes will affect brand pages. If users are given more control over what they are seeing, does that mean they will be able to get rid of ads and brand content? That could pose a serious challenge to marketers.

The definition of Facebook creeping

Posted on by Emilie Buckman

I feel like a creep. Social media and technology made me and everyone else into creeps.

With a constant stream of accessible information, I know too much about people and their private life. It’s not necessarily that I am seeking this information out. Rather it’s a constant presence and that is too prevalent to ignore. I certainly don’t want to know the girl I had in English class freshmen year is married with a kid and currently trying to potty train said kid.

What’s tech/social media savvy girl to do! Defriend people? I don’t think so. (It should be noted I fear I will run into those people I’ve deleted and that awkward hypothetical isn’t worth defriending.) To be a part of this generation you kind of have to participate in common modes of communication:  texts, tweets, status, direct messages, etc. And you are going to be an inadvertent creep.

But there is a new creep feature to all of this mess I refuse to accept. It started this summer with Facebook messages and has moved to the iPhone. (If it’s on iPhone it won’t be long before it’s on Android.) That feature is “Seen” notification. It tells you the exact time someone reads your message or text.

Well that couldn’t possibly lead to crazy or obsessive behavior, could it? “Oh, I see read y text at 8:37 a.m. and now it is 4:13 p.m. Why haven’t you responded?” This feature will move you quickly past creep and right into crazy. I just don’t see any good from it. It just too bad none of this developers realize there is such a thing as too much information.

Creepiest Facebook App Ever

Posted on by Katelyn Youngblood

Not many people my age agree with me, but there are times when I think social media has gone too far. Case in point: the Facebook app If I Die.

This app allows you to record a message to send to your family, loved ones, and most importantly, your Facebook friends. Once your death has been confirmed it sends out your prerecorded message to your Facebook friends or posts what you have written to be your last status.

In theory I think this isn’t a strange idea. For those with a terminal illness it might be a useful way of saying goodbye, and people have been writing their loved ones goodbye letters for years. In today’s world, wanting to spread your final words to your timeline seems like a natural progression.

What really gets to me is the app’s new campaign, If I Die 1st.  Essentially, the company has teamed with various outlets and is offering to promote and share the parting words of the first person to die. Morbid, right?

Not only do I think it’s a bad idea to basically encourage people to be the first to die (imagine the problems that could arise with suicide attempts), but it’s the way in which the campaign’s video does it that really makes me uncomfortable.  The video highlights the need for fame, and since most of us won’t be conventionally famous, what’s a better way to make it happen than by having your dying words spread all over the internet?

The video itself is especially creepy, practically glorifying death and positioning the first person to die as the “winner” (Fun Fact: their website has a running total of Facebook deaths since August 2012, along with the estimated time of death of the winner).  When did our society decide that dying in order to broadcast your message to the world via social media was acceptable? I’m sorry, can’t we all just focus on living?