The Ruination of Facebook

Once upon a time, in the not to distant past, there was a place found on the internet where college students could share pictures, information, and keep in touch with classmates and high school friends at different universities. It was a tool, that used properly, was even useful in expanding learning outside of the classroom. It was free from banner ads and embedded ads, and it was simple and easy to use. It started out at just a few universities but slowly spread to college campuses across the country. Pretty soon you couldn't find a college student who didn't know what Facebook was.

Today, the game has changed. No longer exclusive to college students, Facebook has become an open cesspool for anyone with a computer. Where once was a place to communicate with friends, is now a "junk drawer" for 'applications', banner ads, spam, and middle schoolers trying to post pictures of themselves in their most inappropriate poses. What was once a convenient and easy way to see what your friends were up to or what kinds of things were going on around campus; is now an, almost impossible to navigate, mess of applications that people have made to try and make money or, at the very least, waste hours of your time.

When we look back at the progression of Facebook, it is pretty easy to see where the transformation from positive social technology to viral mass marketing tool and pedophile playground occurred.

The first big change was the introduction of the 'News Feed'. All of a sudden your friends, and those you added to be nice, could see every time you made an update to your profile or someone wrote on your wall. So bad was the initial launch of this new feature, that Facebook had to temporarily suspend it until they could make the appropriate fixes to their security policy. Enter Phase 2 of the transformation. With the addition of the 'News Feed', Facebook had to instill security measures where people could pick or choose what updates got televised on the News Feed. Most people, concerned with the absolute creepiness-factor of it all and the sheer threat of a cyber-stalker, realized that it was safest to just prevent everything from being shown on the News Feed.

Next, and probably the biggest factor in the ruination, was the opening of Facebook to the general public. In just 1 day, Facebook went from an online community of college students in the same general position to a community of Tom, Dick, and Harrys which included everything from middle schoolers to pedophiles to teachers and parents. The first two, I might note, don't necessarily go well together. A sanctuary for a group of people with generally similar views, experiences, etc. had become open to the evils of the ignorant public. It wasn't long before little siblings became curious of Facebook, followed by parents, and soon companies and businesses were looking into Facebook for information about potential employees and as a tool for advertising. Pandora's box had been opened.

Finally, was the introduction of 3rd party applications. Although, one of the bullet points of Web 2.0 and social networking, Applications were the final piece of the puzzle to ruining Facebook. Anyone with some programming knowledge was able to create an application that could be added to someone's Facebook page. Applications ranged from enhanced versions of Facebook features that already existed to full-fledged games, and the one thing that all of the applications had in common was the ability to send any updates to the News Feed. Now, not only can your friends see when you make profile updates but they can also see when your ninja kills a pirate or what celebrity you resemble. Facebook pages and News Feeds, alike, have become polluted with useless applications, unimportant information, and stupid ads. Some of the applications even make you send your friends invites to install the app on their page just for you to get to the end point of the app. Most of these applications aren't designed so they are easy to use, but rather for the user to unassumingly click on an indescrete link that takes them to some other site trying to sell them something. And so, once again, the security issues comes into play; and people realize that instead of having to sift through pages of pointless News Feeds, it is easier to just block all updates from coming to the News Feed.

Thus, we are left with an online community of pages that people don't update often or look at because they are afraid of being bombarded with News Feeds, ads, and spam. A place where people have become so cautious about what is televised to everyone, that they choose to not share any information at all. Where it was once commonplace to see people using Facebook walls almost like instant messaging, we are left with the equivalent of grafitti on an overpass where walls are written on sporatically. No longer can you simply sign on and see what your friends are up to or how they are doing. Instead you either have to search for their profile in your friends list and see if they have made any updates or changes, or you have to be satisfied with reading about how they got a personal high score in Word Twist.

Due to the greed and ignorance of America, a site that was a great tool for social communication amongst, atleast somewhat, semi-intellectual college students, and had loads of potential has become a site of pointless procrastination for the masses.