College students embrace the trend toward an increasingly interconnected world, but a device initially developed to allow students to check their friend's hobbies recently morphed into a device that could conceivably be used for stalking.
Facebook took it one step too far with its latest addition, yet it only was doing what students wanted it to by trying to stay hip.
The Facebook mission statement reads, ""Facebook is a social utility that helps people better understand the world around them. Facebook develops technologies that facilitate the spread of information through social networks, allowing people to share information online the same way they do in the real world."" Essentially, that is what the News Feed and Mini Feed options do, as they highlight changes to a friend's profile.
With over 9 million registered users, Facebook is trying anything to maintain its status as the ultimate college website. As of Monday, there were 43,667 students in the Madison-Wisconsin Facebook network of undergraduate students, graduate students and recent alumni. Clearly, Facebook is extremely popular.
So why change? Quite simply, it had to do something to stay trendy. Complacency is a kiss of death for college students. In a world full of MTV, online instant messengers, cell phones and MP3 players, college students always look for the newest, coolest thing to share with their friends.
The fact that Facebook continues to adapt while students continue to use it, despite fears of compromised security, further shows that college students are the ones to blame for Facebook's recent addition.
Facebook only created the so-called stalker feature because people wanted it. Students originally complained, but many have already embraced it. Those who have not will either eventually accept it or ignore it.
What are they going to do, quit Facebook? Quit a website that allows a person to see pictures, lists, favorite music and movies—even the thoughts of all their friends?
That seems unlikely, as Facebook has positioned itself as the ultimate way to interact with friends on the other side of the country, not just across campus.
In an increasingly global world where friends and family are spread farther apart, it provides a feeling of closeness. These new changes suit a fast paced world. A person can scan the headlines for new information, as opposed to wasting time and opening hardly-modified profiles.
Students' hypocrisy is laughable. They have finally gotten what they wanted; a means to control what their friends see, while still being able to be a part of the college phenomenon that is the Facebook.
So quit complaining, or terminate your account. Either way, Mark Zuckerberg is laughing as he rolls in millions of dollars from his website of 9 million users.
He started the trend, and he has to maintain that buzz among college students about the coolness and innovativeness of Facebook. After all, that's what students wantA-: to be part of the trend.
Adam Seston is a senior majoring in History. His column appears every Wednesday. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
