I detest Myspace.
It’s cluttered, glitchy, slow, ugly and frustrating to use. I run a business that requires me to keep a Myspace, but if I didn’t absolutely have to have one, I’d scrap it with no looking back.
There’s just nothing about it that’s as good as Facebook. And yet, before Facebook made its recent changes, it was starting to look and function like Myspace, instead of vice-versa.
As with most evils, the bad things arrived in the costume of ostensibly good features. Facebook allows you to make your own applications? Sweet! User modification is so hip and Web 2.0.
Applications were awesome for about a week.
Once the amount of apps got over a dozen, they started to seriously clutter Facebook pages.
I had to scroll down and scroll down and scroll down to get to the actual wall. I couldn’t find basic things like notes under the friend wheel, honesty box, lolcats, superwall, superpoke, graffiti, OU fandom, pieces of flair and on and on that were drowning pages.
I couldn’t find information, and that frustrated me.
On top of that, the amount of requests I received for applications was oppressive.
It got to the point where I blocked any application, regardless of quality, because I was just hacked off.
The new Facebook simplifies everything. The wall is the first thing that greets me instead of info. I know exactly what my best friend’s musical interests are – that doesn’t change day-to-day.
What I don’t know every day before looking at Facebook is what his wall says, what his statuses were for the past day and what events he’s going to. Those things are of interest. Lo and behold, that stuff ends up front and center.
This might be just me, but I like the fact that the interesting stuff is in the most interesting place.
Everything gets its own tab — applications are put in their own tab, decluttering the front page. Info has its own page.
You can make your own tabs for pretty much everything, actually.
If you’ve ever used a computer before, you’re familiar with folders. Consider the new Facebook a folder system.
You put things in their right place, then you access them from there. It’s neat, tidy and puts the emphasis on the right things.
Yes, change is never fun. Getting used to a new system takes some time and effort, whether it’s a computer program or a new professor.
If you say you can’t find anything on the new Facebook, take 20 minutes and click through everything.
It’ll make sense. You’re already browsing friends of friends instead of writing a paper anyway; put your wasted time to good use so you can know what you’re using.
I could go into the “there are bigger problems than Facebook, get over yourselves” argument, but I won’t. I’m going here: Be happy that Facebook doesn’t cost you anything.
Companies that know they have the best products can and do jack the prices on things because people will pay. Facebook is by far the best social networking application ever created, and by the laws of capitalism, we should be paying for it.
But we’re not. That in itself is worth being happy about.
I’m excited about the new Facebook because it showcases the good and minimizes the bad. Utility up, clutter down. I don’t know who would argue with that.
Stephen Carradini is a professional writing junior. His column appears every other Thursday.
The Oklahoma Daily is pleased to provide you the opportunity to share your thoughts about this article. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or straying from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of OUDaily.com. Thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register
still_somewhere 3 years, 8 months ago
Clutter down? I don't know what New Facebook you're using, but mine comes with superfluous tabs and links that go nowhere. We were better off with the old one--the only benefit I see with New is avoiding having to sort past dozens of applications when trying to write on the walls of overly zealous friends.