Thursday, September 07, 2006

Who next will incur the wrath of college students? First there was South African apartheid, then Sinopec and other Chinese oil companies operating in Sudan. Now, the dictatorial Facebook News Feed.

I relish the controversy. First, because the news media thinks the Facebook News Feed is newsworthy. Second, because of this kid's quote:
"I think the thing that was overlooked was how the users themselves would react to the news feeds," says student and blogger Kiyoshi Martinez, a critic of the changes who is organizing protests through SaveFacebook.com, a community action site. "From what I've read, the Facebook community wants to have more control over how they use News Feeds, and there wasn't any discussion about that prior to the changes."
Ah, the Facebook community. Where everybody knows your name. And they're always glad you came. Where our troubles are all the same. I get a warm, new-puppy-on-Christmas-day kind of feeling just thinking about it. Or I would, if I used Facebook for anything more than cell phone numbers and trying to decide whether someone is attractive or not.

Third, I really like Zuckerberg's response to the whole thing:

"We think they are great products," Zuckerberg wrote, "but we know that many of you are not immediate fans, and have found them overwhelming and cluttered. Other people are concerned that non-friends can see too much about them."

"None of your information is visible to anyone who couldn’t see it before the changes," he added. "Nothing you do is being broadcast; rather, it is being shared with people who care about what you do -- your friends."

Let me summarize his reaction: I understand why you're upset. But you're wrong. Stop complaining.

Zuckerberg, you should cash out while you still can.

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