In light of the recent social media changes - I'm looking at you Facebook - I thought why not throw my two cents into the debate & see what happens. Flame me if you wish; but give me a few minutes to say my piece.
I joined the social networking giant before it was a...well, giant. I was a Facebook devotee when it was a small, homegrown, college network; a place for students to hook up & flame their numerous professors and fellow collegiate buddies. It was picture and a tweet. End of story.
The tides changed and the social media Giant that was MySpace, died. A horrible, lonely death. And out of the ruins Facebook exploded.
The idea was simple. No crazy, seizure inducing page layouts. No mind-numbing, soul-sapping online games that choke up your updates stream. No teeny-bopping hipsters trying to lure you into being a friend so they can spam you within a inch of your life. Nope.
It was a simple white page, with a few pictures and random streams of comments and thoughts. I will admit it was merely the reincarnation of My Space from back in the day; but it seemed more....mature? Easier? Somehow it didn't feel like a dirty secret that you were constantly updating a social network. Or is that just me?
Regardless, Facebook brought together, for better or worse, generations of bored people, families, old high school friends and long last acquaintances together, with the ability to share the absurd, the funny and sometimes the mundane. Easier than a phone call, huh?
Now fast forward to today.
Call me old. Call me out of touch. Call me ubergeek. But I do not like the new changes. And here's why.
I'm barely computer illiterate. Sure I know how to operate a computer better than my Grandmother; of course I spend WAY too much time playing around the Internet; I can use almost any office with the efficiency of a trained monkey....I am still pretty retarded as far as the uses and changes of many a social media site. THAT was the draw of Facebook. I got it. Or I had it.
I can't help but see the same mass destruction to Facebook that sounded the death knell for MySpace. MySpace tried the same thing - adding new features faster than people learned how to use them, or ignore them; creating evermore personalizing features that only add annoying flash media and irritating social gaming abilities; too many icons, blurbs, addicting additions......too much.
I believe the biggest issue I have is this - they didn't ask. And maybe I have chosen the wrong social event 'bandwagon' to throw myself on but it seems to me to incorporate everything that annoys me about mass media and our reliance on it. Everyone tells me to stop complaining; ' if you don't like it...turn off the features.....use another site.....get with the times'. But why should I? Why should you? Just because big brother tells us that this is a good thing and we NEED this change, doesn't mean we actually do.
Ask....what is so hard about asking and then allowing people to make a choice? We spend our time telling our kids to make choices; make the right choices; think for yourself; don't be pushed into things that you don't want to do because people tell you you should......
Change is good; but should we have the choice to chose?
It's not the changes that people have a problem with - after all, you can opt out of some of them - it's the fact that no one asked for them.
"Sometimes the best course of action, is no action at all"
Oooo, I have a notification. I get them on my iphone......Later!
