What the hell has happened to Facebook? I logged in for the first time in a long time yesterday to respond to a message from this idiot and I’m greeted by all sorts of strange and unwanted distractions. There’s little colored icons everywhere… I’m getting “super poked” (what?) by people I’ve never heard of… the NYPD wants to hire me…
How is this site so popular?
Aside from conspiratorial stories like this one, the only press I’ve read about Facebook is good press. Surely I can’t be the only one who remembers the Spartan-like Facebook of days past, with its clean interface and simple presentation. Now it’s all Las Vegas-like: flashy doodads left and right and men slapping escorts’ “business cards” in your face. Charming, sure, but highly intrusive nonetheless.
I fully understand that these social networking Web sites are all the rage with the kids right now, but consider me the old man in the room who has no idea what’s going and wished things were like they used to be: stale and predictable.
agreed… facebook really is ridiculous these days. you aren’t the only one who misses the original!
The disgusting MySpace-ification of Facebook… Soon people will be able to gussy up their profiles with pictures of skeletons or Bratz dolls or “Bandwidth Exceeded” .gifs and autoplaying music, and I will continue to get “Top 8 superfriends” requests from that guy at work that I really don’t like but allowed him to add me just because I felt bad because we all suspect that he’s a little slow.
“Humans! Protect bovine rights and enjoy the best tasting milk.”
Funny.
I deactivated my Facebook account almost half a year ago, and I haven’t really missed it since. Facebook has always been enigmatic for me. I used it simply to waste time at work over the summer (which I do by reading CG more than in school now).
For instance, most of the people I know use Facebook to waste their time (instead of studying thermodynamics or fluid mechanics and what not). However, Facebook has been developing more and more to incorporate what seems to be a more active community. However, everyone I know doesn’t participate.
So who actually uses Facebook. I’m sure there are plenty of college students that use Facebook to talk to their bazillion fake friends, and to get e-popularity points by comparing their wall post counts, but I really think those are limited.
Has facebook simply become another myspace?
I suppose the one thing Facebook has going for it is that there will always been new students entering the education system, and people will always grow to that age (think teenage emotional girls) where they compete to have the most friends, most wall posts, most pictures, etc. In addition, the movement of students across the states and the world, as well as the growing connection that young adults have to one another through e-mail, instant messaging, and cell phones all signal a growth towards “fake friendships” and establishing or keeping up “weak links.”
I suppose Facebook while fulfilling a need and a want from students in college to stay in contact with all their friends as was the case 3 or 4 years ago, has progressed to become another MySpace-esque site devoted towards fulfilling the more pressing and emotional needs of pubescent teenage whiners.
Man, sometimes I despite teenagers.
I’ll admit that Facebook has become more complicated and creepy (in that it makes me feel like a super-stalker), but it’s still better than MySpace.
I’m a huge fan of the new Marketplace section, which I’ve been using to look for an NYC apartment. It’s better than CraigsList, in that it automatically tells you about who posted the apartment listing (etc.) and who you know in common. Very cool.
I was one of the original Facebook users, when Zuckerberg created the network for colleges in the Boston area. It’s really grown up, but there are quite a few features it could do without…like the newsfeed.
Your only visual example of the clutter is a single line in the Notifications area. Unless you go in and manually add applications you will only get assaulted by a few random requests. Most of them only add information to a person’s profile, they don’t actively harass others. Some do, of course, like that SuperPoke app. You ignore them and don’t add them yourself.
If you feel assaulted by the News Feed or other features you can adjust or disable them. They do need to add a preferences option for the News Feed of whether to show notifications for when others add or remove apps.
The usefulness of Facebook comes from whether your friends use it. Most people I know use it in college. Some stop when they graduate, some don’t. If you and your friends continue using it, it stays useful. Just like any social networking site.
Well, Laurie, aren’t you special for being one of Zuckerberg’s guinea pigs?! JK JK JK. FaceBook bites it these days. It’s super creepy and I really don’t appreciate being updated on every little thing people do.
The only time that Facebook was worth a damn was back in its beta phase. Since then I thoroughly despise all things Facebook, no matter what anyone says.
I think Facebook is great - at least compared to many of the other social networks out there. Xanga may have some of the best-rounded features, but needs to beef up the Facebook-like features (which they have begun doing). Facebook is so much better than MySpace…
The new stuff you see happening on Facebook is the product of your friends’ activity there.
Many people mentioned about the creepiness factor of Facebook nowadays. What they have overlooked is the fact that Facebook actually added a ‘Privacy’ section so that you can turn of anything that creeps you out, such as getting updated about what your friends are doing or your friends being updated about what you’re doing. Personally though, I think it kind of defeats the purpose of a social networking site, but since many people complain about privacy, Facebook has responded with that new feature.
sometimes you just want to superpoke somebody with your superfinger.
Facebook, Myspace, Xanga… Meh.
Same shit different smell.
Any MySpace / Facebook “discussion” is somewhat mute in my opinion. MySpace became big by being “open”, now it’s crumbling in usefulness for the same reason (being annoying).
You’ll find that Facebook is gaining use, especially with young people travelling (overseas). You can’t meet an English or American without the obligatory “you got Facebook?” (I’m Australian).
The Apps can be annoying, but have been implemented in a very logical way, with enough restrictions to make them not take over, and enough control to make them useful. (The only thing I ask is not to have 1,000 requests a day to add “move mania” or some such thing, but that really comes down to your friends doesn’t it, not Facebook). Compared to the 3rd party MySpace odds and ends, these are a ‘god send’.
The main problem being that their “Networks” don’t granulize very much outside of the ‘good old US of A’, and I see this could be a very large space for either Facebook Apps or new Facebook clones (which have been reviewed here before), to get into the market.
[sorry, extended post]
The fact that Facebook shares your information with these third parties is a little worrying, even if they ask you to “give permission” with each application request. It is something that I know I just click the “yeah whatever” button for, and don’t think twice about.
This entry is music to my ears.
Visit ClutterMe.com in about two months, and we’re hoping you’ll find a clean, light-weight, and above all USEFUL alternative (with a few twists which we’re keeping to ourselves for now).
Thank you for yet another confirmation that we’re on the right track ;)
All of these new features just give people an outlet to showcase their stupidity, much like Myspace and the ridiculous looking profiles people think are cool. When facebook automatically starts playing music on profiles like myspace does, I am out.
Hell ya. Facebook was created to not be like myspace, and now we’re all being fucked in the ass with shity applications that are all too unnecessary. Maybe if we all ctrl+z enough facebook will revert to it’s previous dignified self.
Get out now while you still have some privacy left. Facebook is connected to data mining. I dropped most of my social networking stuff last month when I found out what this stuff is all being used for.
Why do you think a free website wants more and more of your private information? It’s not so you can make “friends.” It’s so that they can use you for whatever they want. Read Facebook’s disclaimer and introductory agreement — they will never delete your account and they have the right to add to it from other sources forever, as they see fit, and spread the information around to whoever they want. You have nothing to say about it. Facebook is bad news. Read the agreement you checked off on. They own you.
first of all, this is a waste of digg space…
second, no one forces you to add applications.
third, you have complete control over what you see and don’t see, just edit your settings.
if all you want is message updates, then that’s all you have to see… you just have to set it that way.
don’t knock something if you haven’t a fucking clue how to use it…
Its not hard to turn off those features if they aren’t your thing. Right above that picture you have is a privacy link. I don’t mind that “only my friends” know what I am up to.
Facebook sold out, simple enough.
It used to be privy to only college students, and for that reason alone was it embraced by us. Myspace didn’t exist on college campuses three years ago, but Facebook sure did. Now we’re seeing Facebook grow to support not only non-.edu people, but also new “applications” that severely slow everything down, clutter the site, and make it a pain to use for what it used to be great at (sharing pictures, putting together parties, etc).
Zuckerberg got full of himself and ruined it for the people that made it what it is today.
Try http://www.myContactDetails.com/ simply whats needed with no “poking”.
Anything that involves gift-giving is lame.
The fight is all about content. Facebook doesn’t really care, as long as they can create a sticky site generate more ad rev they’re ecstatic. Its all about generating the EBITDA they need to get the valuation they want and selling out.
All you need to do is use the privacy settings.
Stay clear of unwanted “distraction” by setting them to “My friends only”…
It’s really that easy.
Although Facebook is expreiencing a rapid growth not only in userbase but in development from 3rd parties, it is still possible to keep it nice and clean, albeit you have to make that decision actively, since the privacy settings are not entirely conservative to start with…
But it *is* possible to keep it that way it used to be.
Tarwin
June 17th, 2007 at 7:41 am
Any MySpace / Facebook “discussion” is somewhat mute in my opinion. MySpace became big by being “open”, now it’s crumbling in usefulness for the same reason (being annoying).
You mean “moot”?
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/moot
People like you ruin the English language.
Facebook sucks… it gets popular like all other sites… and here comes the advertisement! Enjoy!
It really is obnoxious since they opened their platform.
People want more stuff so facebook gives them more “stuff” if its too much hassle to turn off some silly little applications on a FREE website, then just stop visiting that site.
Its the same thing over and over, people join a site like this then it gets big and then these people complain to no end how the old one was better. Make our own social networking site that doesn’t grow and see how long that sticks around.
I joined Facebook about three or four years ago and made a modest profile, accepted when people sent me a friend request, but otherwise did not use it much. I didn’t see the point in simply having a profile and sending messages to my friends, that what email is for.
Now that they have included the Facebook platform and the applications, I have begun to find out how useful it can actually be. I have reconnected with several good friends who grew apart. It’s a central site for photo hosting and it’s a great way to send invitations. I suppose it hinges on what percentage of your friends use it, but a large percentage of mine do which makes it useful.
Unlike MySpace, where I mostly got friend requests from adfronts, porn sites, and bands, I have never recieved any spam on Facebook. The interface is much cleaner, the applications work well, and no videos, slideshows, or music load automatically when you load someone’s profile. I have a “Where you’ve been” application on my profile, and it won’t even load a little picture of where you have been unless you click on it. As much as I used to be against Facebook, I have lately found it to be very useful.
The most annoying thing about facebook is that I find myself guessing what to click on to find where certain things are.
To people who complain about the “new” facebook.
1. Business Concept: You need to look at FB from the business perspective. Facebook had a limited scope, offering only a few networks that users can interact with. Other than that, they have nothing else.
2. Growth: Big business needs to grow. You don’t just conform and be satisfied with x million users. Look at FB’s growth in the past year, going up, but slowly, suggesting the growth reflects exposure, ie. expected, which has less to do with how amazingly awesome FB likes to think of itself. That means if FB continues as before, it will only grow from exposure, but the “coolness factor” would eventually die.
3. Diversity: By offering diversity, FB would accommodate more people. They would sure lose the ones who are into specific niche, but they would gain a lot more users in return. What they have recently added to the community has a lot to do with choices. For most options and applications, users can opt in or out as desired.
Users who prefer to keep things the way it’s supposed to be and fail to understand growth and diversity from the business perspective would just lose patience because of outdated viewpoints. You’re welcome to leave, but know that FB has a lot more people coming and its growth rate should increase a lot more in the coming year.
What FB hasn’t learned yet is its network system. They need to modify the model in a way that allows users to have more interaction with the rest of the world, not just the freedom to move around within their networks. This concept is hard to change as it is their original philosophy, but with technology available nowadays, that’s not a problem.
What about Virb (www.virb.com) by comparison? I haven’t explored it much, but does it stand up as a viable alternative for those who want the social network without the clutter? At first glance, it appears to be sparse with few users. Thoughts?
agreed, facebook is not what it used to be, the old facebook was simple and sweet. when they started rolling up all these application, it became the pathetic. here are just some of the application that pisses me off
- What the hell is honesty request? and why should I give my confession to the public.
- Love mate? why would i broadcast my relation to the world.
- Cookie forturne? are you kidding me?
The people behind facebook forget what facebook is all about, they got greedy, craved for more, and now turning ( and giving) head to every big company
to the facebook dev. Keep it simple Stupid (kiss)
Sounds to me like you’ve been left behind and feel out of touch. The facebook platform was released not long ago, it’s only natural people are going mad for the apps at the moment.
It’s been said above that it’s easy to adjust your privacy settings. Don’t want to be superpoked? Click reject, there are no flashy icons, no autoplaying flash anywhere on the site and the facebook admins say they have no intention of ever allowing autoplaying music or insane make your eyes bleed type themes on a page by page basis.
It’s still good, you just need to delve into the settings a bit and tweak things to your own liking.
I totally agree with this…the same thing happened to me yesterday! I don’t even know where to look for anything anymore…there is a list of every single move every one of my friends has made, people are drawing on my wall with grafitti, and now you can buy “gifts” to give away. What was once sophisticatedly simple has now gone completely overboard. Oh, did I mention I work in high-end technology and it’s even confusing to me?
It’s turning into a cleaner version of myspace. One of the many reasons why I hate myspace and enjoyed facebook. Heck they might as well merge and become MYFACE.
One can only Hope.
If everyone had it their way and Facebook didn’t grow into the “complicated” mess that you all perceive it to be, you’d all still complain that it isn’t as feature rich as myspace. Now you all have what you’ve always wanted and you’re still complaining.
Facebook luckily implemented a stratagey that allows the user to keep facebook as simple or as complicated as they want. Its not clutter unless you add clutter.
I agree.
Facebook is now a mess.
They should move all third party applications to a separate page, away from the home page
I agree with what Jimmy said: ‘The new stuff you see happening on Facebook is the product of your friends’ activity there.’
I’ve used facebook for almost 5 yrs now. I’ve seen it grow from an infantile social networking site to more varied use site. As a college student I’ve enjoyed the variablity of staying up with the current events of friends from high school and friends from college. It serves it’s purpose. The platform is also secure and I like the optical character regonition ability it has in tagging photos.
In terms of privacy it’s up to you, don’t publish something you want others to know about you. The internet is considered public domain. If you want privacy then use privacy. As for the woman who mentioned data mining, too bad. Every time you use an email site/server that company is data mining on you, your insurance company data mines you, your health care provider does, just that they do it in a less obvious way.
I think it is really up to personal opinion whether you think myspace, facebook or the plethora of other networking sites is for you. Each has their own equal amount of positive/negative aspects.
Sorry, but I love it.
I’m 31 and live overseas and until Facebook came along had entirely lost contact with most of my friends back in the UK. The 100 or so people I’ve got are people I actually knew albeit a long time ago in my teens and it’s wonderful to be able to catch up. Not being an old-skool facebooker, I wouldn’t have a clue about what it used to be like, but whatever they mine or take in return for me using this free service, it’s given me a wealth of REAL reconnection with people who I considered out of the loop with for over a decade.
Yes some of the apps are lame, but it still beats the hell out of myspace.
“I fully understand that these social networking Web sites are all the rage with the kids right now, but consider me the old man in the room who has no idea what’s going and wished things were like they used to be: stale and predictable.”
im 15 o.Q props to Nic for something i was pissed about
Maybe this article explains why you are so confused: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6236628.stm
It sounds like an old man reviewed this article. Well u know what, i dont have the patience for old people, so SPANK IT. Take ur gripes about “flashy doodads” to old person hell with u cause i dont wanna hear about it. HOW THE FUCK DID THIS GET 575 DIGGS. That aside facebook still isnt as bad as myspace and probably wont be for a long time.
I agree with your hurt over what FB is becoming. It’s like, we didn’t really need all that other crap on there. Movie reviews, super pokes, etc.
Sometimes, money isn’t everything.
The thing I liked about Facebook was that it was a neatly designed social network. And just because it wasn’t heavily fueled with applications, it was nice spending time there. I did like it when the Newsfeed was added as it wasn’t destructive and kept you easily updated. But now it’s taking me hours to check all the new applications, so I simply click “decline”. Earlier people focused on real news and chat, and now it turned into annoying horoscopes and fortune cookies…
Can I just say, “Facebook” as all the oldies know it, is still there, it’s the apps which are being relesed for the Facebook platform by people of an “oldies” age, which are making the clutter so bad. So I would lay off the teenagers, and look at the people who are supplying them with the crap.
This must be the first article in months I’ve read that isn’t licking Facebooks arse and comparing it to Myspace. Some of these new applications are good but most are pointless and annoying.
would like to add my two cents (and few dollars) here :)
first, the privacy issue (being easily turned on or off) is not really that simple, I have been trying to turn off some news feeds at no avail, they really do whatever they want regardless of how you set it… in addition to that, I have been getting complaints of: how can we do this or that? believe it or not, regular users are not very comfortable with the current (or older) version of facebook, it is pretty confusing to get around and do basic things
second: i have exposed a small bug in facebook’s privacy, talked about it on my blog: http://shut.elmota.com/?p=44
basically, commenting on somebody’s photo exposes their entire album to whoever wishes to see it…
recently another privacy issue: if somebody sends u a message u know they expose their profiles, but did u know that if u reply with a simple “no thanks” u expose ur profile to them? i didnt, and got myself in trouble for not knowing! the guy actually found out my phone number and called! (although i set it to My Friends Only) i went back to facebook and blocked him, but it would have been nicer if i relied on facebook not to expose me in the first place
third: im older than college kids :) but i use facebook, because it got me in touch with very old friends, it seems like everyone i know uses facebook, and that never happened before, i got in touch with a girl i knew in thrid grade! thats 20 years ago (wow!) so the direction everybody is discussing here is not the only one, some ppl add only people they recognize… so eventually once i get in contact with them, i dont need facebook :)
last: some people are pretty critical about the privacy policy and terms of use… i think those terms are on every site, but we never read them, if facebook intends to use those data for advertisements to be more relevant to who i am, then be it… but i hope they dont give away my phone number for sales reps! :s
least: moot, mute, very interesting, i think they both work, dont u?