Dubai: When someone offers unsolicited help in some form or fashion, the red flags start popping up everywhere.
"We want to help you," in my risk-adverse world, is as Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson would groan, dark devious code for underhanded intentions that are more often than not, 180 degrees from the truth.
With that in mind, it's been fascinating to watch the fallout of the recent so-called "improvements" made by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to the world's most popular social media site that by last count, I recall, has something like 750 million users.
Last month, Zuckerberg rolled out specialised friends lists and subscribing to reduce the noise for users, the company said.
A quick glimpse through the newsfeed on my four-year-old Facebook account tells me that many of my so-called friends are very unhappy with the facelift.
Doug, a fellow Canadian, wrote recently in his status: "What is the matter with FACEBOOK? WHO DREAMED UP THIS NEW FORMAT? ARE THEY KIDDING?"
Another friend's post makes it very clear the new Facebook has made his life more complicated.
"The ‘new' facebook is the most irritating and cluttered website EVER. It was so much more organised before, now there's a facebook within ur facebook, and there's numbers everywhere. My eyes hurt," he wrote.
Off to Google+
One of my old college buddies from journalism school, Mark, wrote: "If anyone else is on Google+, look me up. I'm thinking I'll be spending more time on there with the idiotic changes Zuckerberg and his ‘geniuses' have made here."
Facebook member Brian wrote: "I hate the changes too, and more are on the way, but I have had enough trouble tracking down friends here. I'm not starting again."
One post, written by Shelly, simply read: "Zuckernerd....."
My initial reaction has been similar for one very simple reason — I value highly my newsfeed posts.
As an expatriate who is half a world away from my home in Canada, I have come to depend on Facebook to fill the void of living abroad and not having the luxury of having old friends and family close by in the same city.
In short, when Facebook messes around with the newsfeed and reneges on simply giving you the entire newsfeed of all your friends, I am, well, miffed.
Something very strange is going on with the newsfeed — now, I may only get 40 or 50 posts and when I try to get older posts, Facebook doesn't want to give them to me.
Too much to bear
Maybe the sheer load of providing so many daily posts is simply too much to bear for Facebook's servers. I don't know, because Zuckerberg is not on my friends' list.
Facebook, meanwhile, is saying it is providing less feeds because its users don't want everything, comparing it to a spam-like experience.
Facebook's changes, launched in mid-September, include headlines on its blog such as "Improved Friends Lists," which apparently lets us custom design our lists to see only what we want to see or share.
Facebook has introduced Smart Lists, instant autonomous lists that create themselves automatically based on "profile info your friends have in common with you — like your work, school, family and city", according to the website.
Under a Close Friends list, Facebook says, you can see only the stuff you want "and see less from people you're not close to".
Last month, Zuckerberg said this was "the biggest update that we've done in a long time".
Facebook could take a lesson from Yahoo! and its move to a newer more modern mail format, the key being they are not forcing the changes upon their longstanding users.
The last time I logged on to my Yahoo! mail, overseers of the site asked me if I wanted to stick with the "classic" version or download the new style, an indication that the company recognises its users may actually want to stay with a format that prompted them to sign up in the first place. But, I suppose we're in the age of like it or lump it.
Apple is as guilty as Facebook of imposing its corporate will on lemming users as evidenced every time an apps update pops up on my iPad2. Apple iTunes simply informs me that an update is ready for a certain app and the only choice I have to make is "OK".
In many cases, when I am forced to do an update, the app no longer works.
One quick glance
I hate to be sentimental, but I liked the earlier versions of Facebook where all of the links and apps were located easily on my profile page and I could find them with one quick glance.
Now, I have to relearn it from the ground up, something that I'm not really sure I am interested in.
I don't have time to customise all of my settings and re-tweak privacy controls.
So, Facebook in the end says it is all ears and is trying to create an environment where it wants to listen better to demands of its users.
If Hunter S. Thompson were alive today, he might tell you quite the opposite — that Facebook is essentially ignoring our need for a simple tool to stay connected.
New Facebook changes
On its website, Facebook states the following:
- "Smart lists: You'll see smart lists that create themselves and stay up-to-date based on profile info your friends have in common with you — like your work, school, family and city.
- Close Friends and Acquaintances lists: You can see your best friends' photos and posts in one place, and see less from people you're not as close to.
- Better suggestions: You can add the right friends to your lists without a lot of effort."
SOURCE: www.facebook.com
