Facebookers react to added features, stage online protest
Alicia Collins
Issue date: 9/14/06 Section: TruLife
In past decades, students have protested infringements of civil rights, wars and attacks on the right to individuality. Today's students protest Facebook.
Deemed the "Facebook Generation" by numerous publications, this generation has joined together to speak out against the Sept. 5 additions to the Web site.
Facebook's News Feed is a constantly updating list of news stories about users' friends located on their homepage. Mini-Feed is similar, but it tracks only the user's actions and is located on their profile page.
Students across the country immediately started numerous groups to protest the additions. The largest of these groups is "Students against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)" which had more than 70,000 members by the end of the first night and was quickly approaching 800,000 by the time of publication.
Unnerved by the amount of information available on the News Feed, junior David Kiblinger said he joined the petition group.
"It was a bit scary to see that all of my actions were being tracked," he said.
Kiblinger, an avid Facebook user, said that although he does not like the additions, he thinks there are other things students should be worried about.
"I wish people would get this angry about other things," he said. "We can really change the government, etcetera, and [students] should be outraged at things around the world, not just Facebook."
Kiblinger said Facebook administrators should have worked through the privacy settings better before launching both News Feed and Mini-Feed on the Web site.
"I think it's different because [on Facebook] you're not going to be checking each other's accounts that often," he said. "To have that much information available to that many people just crosses the line."
However, three days after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg began receiving negative feedback concerning the additions, he and his staff made changes to mollify users, according to a Facebook representative. New privacy settings allow users to choose which information will be displayed about them in both the News Feed and the Mini-Feed.
Kiblinger said he thinks most people will choose to have the least amount of information possible displayed about them in the News Feed.
"I think the whole negative reaction against the News Feed thing is going to stay around," he said. "I don't need or want the rest of the world to see my every action."
Michael Goggin, associate professor of physics, said he began using Facebook to keep in touch with students. He said Facebook administrators' reasoning that personal information had always been readily available and was just available in a different manner is irrelevant.
"There is a lot of information that is always readily available about people in general and people can get to it, but you still don't tape it to your front door or build a big marquee and broadcast it out to everybody every time you change something," he said.
Dereck Daschke, associate professor of philosophy and religion, who has a Facebook profile, said News Feed and Mini-Feed seem to take away a student's ability to decide what level of interaction they want to have with other users.
"It's Facebook saying, 'You are going to have this sort of relationship with everybody, and we didn't tell you that when you signed all of these people up to be your friends,'" he said. "It's almost like a violation of privacy. It makes people feel vulnerable."
Todd Kuhns, Facebook user and technical support specialist with Information Technology Services at the University, said recent complaints about the Facebook changes should have students worrying more about what information they are putting online, not just who is seeing it.
Usually people don't need a social security number or license number to get bank or credit-card information, Kuhns said.
Kuhns said students should keep as little information about themselves on Facebook, and other sites, as possible.
"I'm glad this is waking people up to [identity theft], but it's ridiculous how much information people willingly give out about themselves," he said.
Sidebar
The additions of News Feed and Mini-Feed to Facebook have prompted the creation of several anti-News Feed groups on Facebook. As of press time:
744,936 People belonged to the Global "Students against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)."
385 People belonged to the Global "AFSS (Anti-Facebook 'Stalker' Society)."
31 People belonged to the Global "Anti Anti-Facebook Group."
10 People belonged to the Truman Chapter of the "Anti-Facebook Group."
Deemed the "Facebook Generation" by numerous publications, this generation has joined together to speak out against the Sept. 5 additions to the Web site.
Facebook's News Feed is a constantly updating list of news stories about users' friends located on their homepage. Mini-Feed is similar, but it tracks only the user's actions and is located on their profile page.
Students across the country immediately started numerous groups to protest the additions. The largest of these groups is "Students against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)" which had more than 70,000 members by the end of the first night and was quickly approaching 800,000 by the time of publication.
Unnerved by the amount of information available on the News Feed, junior David Kiblinger said he joined the petition group.
"It was a bit scary to see that all of my actions were being tracked," he said.
Kiblinger, an avid Facebook user, said that although he does not like the additions, he thinks there are other things students should be worried about.
"I wish people would get this angry about other things," he said. "We can really change the government, etcetera, and [students] should be outraged at things around the world, not just Facebook."
Kiblinger said Facebook administrators should have worked through the privacy settings better before launching both News Feed and Mini-Feed on the Web site.
"I think it's different because [on Facebook] you're not going to be checking each other's accounts that often," he said. "To have that much information available to that many people just crosses the line."
However, three days after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg began receiving negative feedback concerning the additions, he and his staff made changes to mollify users, according to a Facebook representative. New privacy settings allow users to choose which information will be displayed about them in both the News Feed and the Mini-Feed.
Kiblinger said he thinks most people will choose to have the least amount of information possible displayed about them in the News Feed.
"I think the whole negative reaction against the News Feed thing is going to stay around," he said. "I don't need or want the rest of the world to see my every action."
Michael Goggin, associate professor of physics, said he began using Facebook to keep in touch with students. He said Facebook administrators' reasoning that personal information had always been readily available and was just available in a different manner is irrelevant.
"There is a lot of information that is always readily available about people in general and people can get to it, but you still don't tape it to your front door or build a big marquee and broadcast it out to everybody every time you change something," he said.
Dereck Daschke, associate professor of philosophy and religion, who has a Facebook profile, said News Feed and Mini-Feed seem to take away a student's ability to decide what level of interaction they want to have with other users.
"It's Facebook saying, 'You are going to have this sort of relationship with everybody, and we didn't tell you that when you signed all of these people up to be your friends,'" he said. "It's almost like a violation of privacy. It makes people feel vulnerable."
Todd Kuhns, Facebook user and technical support specialist with Information Technology Services at the University, said recent complaints about the Facebook changes should have students worrying more about what information they are putting online, not just who is seeing it.
Usually people don't need a social security number or license number to get bank or credit-card information, Kuhns said.
Kuhns said students should keep as little information about themselves on Facebook, and other sites, as possible.
"I'm glad this is waking people up to [identity theft], but it's ridiculous how much information people willingly give out about themselves," he said.
Sidebar
The additions of News Feed and Mini-Feed to Facebook have prompted the creation of several anti-News Feed groups on Facebook. As of press time:
744,936 People belonged to the Global "Students against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)."
385 People belonged to the Global "AFSS (Anti-Facebook 'Stalker' Society)."
31 People belonged to the Global "Anti Anti-Facebook Group."
10 People belonged to the Truman Chapter of the "Anti-Facebook Group."