Have you checked your Facebook today? I know I have. I’m addicted. Logging on and checking for updates has become an aspect of my daily routine. Once I become comfortable with Facebook and all of the programs, I expect them to remain consistent. I like to know exactly where to access the information I want at the exact moment I want it. New technology and demands in society pressure the world of Facebook to constantly change. Recently, Facebook changed its format and added an unfamiliar new news feed.

Any slight change to Facebook is overwhelming. My Facebook profile has become a part of my life.  I do not like any adjustments made to my profile that disrupt my comfort. Facebook usually provides a warning before any changes are made to the format and even allows trials to prevent users from feeling uncomfortable. I appreciated the warning: it is a courteous way of them telling us that our profile will change. I usually opt to try the new format and learn the new programs before they are made permanent. However, for some reason the most recent change made to the Facebook format came with no warning. I logged on to Facebook expecting to see my usual profile, but to my dismay there was a surprise.

When I looked at my homepage I noticed in the top right corner that there was a mini news feed that updates by the second. There was no prior warning to the change in the format and there were many new aspects I had to discover. I quickly learned that the new mini news feed instantly informs me of all my friends’ latest moves. It not only shares what entertainment my friends are absorbing but also shows their new friendships and interactions. Ultimately, I feel like my friends can now influence the entertainment that I consume.

The idea of the home page is to view friends’ recent activity, but is it really necessary to see the little things that all of your friends do every second? The quick new feature is very distracting to the user because it is constantly moving. I like to look at my home page and read the information that I care about, but it is hard to do with so many distractions. The new news feed defeats the purpose of the homepage. The news feed scrolls down with information that I do not care about, like insignificant little interactions that each friend makes. There is no need to see every little interaction, “like” or even entertainment choice. Whenever I look at my home page, there is a moving box catching my eye as each of my friends’ interactions is shared.

Privacy is precious. Facebook’s policies, more than any other social networking site, seem to be directing the definition of privacy in our ever-changing society. Privacy concerns have been progressing over the years as Facebook continues to add new features—from the introduction of the endless scroll of data known as the news feed, to most recently, the use of facial recognition technology to identify people in photographs.

Facebook definitely raises a major issue in regards to privacy. The latest addition that Facebook has chosen to add to the format invades everyone’s privacy on a new level. People can literally “stalk” everything that you are doing on Facebook every second by viewing their mini news feed. This news feed feature exploits every move that you make on Facebook, leaving nothing to hide. The lack of privacy is a major concern.

I cannot have any interactions without them being exploited across everyone’s home screen pages in the updated news feed feature. There is no option to hide your interactions or keep yourself off the news feed feature. My friends can see my interactions just by looking at the news feed on their homepage. The concept of having no privacy or control over what people can see is horrifying.

Facebook has been extremely successful over the years and has become the world’s largest social networking site with nearly 800 million universal users. With the ever-growing Facebook population and the expanding commercialism occurring worldwide, there is no telling just how large Facebook will grow.  However, one thing is for sure, there are always new ideas, features and formats that Facebook will update for its users in order to expand its success. Nobody knows what the future holds, but we know that the world of Facebook will always be changing. With every change comes less privacy.