EDITORIAL – Posting your lives in MyFace

Facebook took a sharp turn toward Stalkerville with its latest updates this week.

The… Facebook took a sharp turn toward Stalkerville with its latest updates this week.

The social-networking Web site now provides users with a “news feed” feature on their homepages and a “mini feed” section on users’ profile pages. Because of this stalk-tastic feature, we can keep up with every single, teeny, tiny change that our friends are making to their profiles — and our friends can keep tabs on us as well.

Bob and Susan are now friends.

Jane just added “scotch” to her favorite interests.

Cindy cares about Kermit the Frog’s campaign issues.

This is what Facebook considers “news?”

Sure, we all joke about stalking friends and acquaintances on Facebook, but now it’s like Facebook is throwing it back in our faces. It’s all getting a little too similar to MySpace, which is a decidedly creepy meat market. The beauty of Facebook was that it wasn’t MySpace — it was simpler and it joined people together through commonalities like their alma maters and interests. Goodbye sweet, virgin Facebook. Hello, MyFace.

Perhaps the larger issue is why, exactly, we’re so up in arms about this change. We all knew what we we’re signing up for with Facebook, and we’ve adjusted our privacy settings accordingly. After all, if you don’t like the idea of people digitally checking up on you at some level, you wouldn’t be a member. But are the new changes just a little too invasive, even for our voyeuristic sides?

A common reaction from those who first learn of the changes to the site is, “So wait, that means people can see everything I do? Every time I change my profile? Eww, I hate that!”

This hasn’t stopped us from diving into the pages and pages of “news feeds” compiling on our homepages and devouring all the trivial information about the people we’ve “friended.” We’re mad because while it’s OK to read about the miniscule details of our friends’ lives, we don’t want all of our information out there. We want control, and the new Facebook has robbed us of it.

So, in a way, the creators have fed a hunger that we’re all ashamed to have. Yeah, it’s obnoxious and it makes the pages cluttered, but how many of us haven’t taken the time to read through them? Clubs dedicated to hating the new format and features have already formed, and the number of signatures on the petition against the changes is astronomically high.

The good news is that, for those of us who honestly want to see it go, the Facebook team might consider toning the content down or filtering it if they receive enough pressure from users. Wasn’t the “recently updated profile” feature enough?

And if the new features aren’t changed, we’ll either get used to them or start changing our security settings to “friends only,” which, incidentally, won’t do a whole lot.

If anything, the new features on Facebook will make us more aware of our addiction, because our profiles’ prominently placed “mini feeds” unabashedly show us all the trivial things we’ve done in the past 45 minutes.

You have written on Joe’s wall.

You have accepted an invitation to South Oakland House Party.

You have added coffee to your favorite interests.

You have wasted your time.

Forced compliance is not so “Awesome!” and the social phenomenon — Facebook has even turned into a verb — that is Facebook is more and more a taboo. Give us back our old Facebook, or get ready for us to “decline” membership.