The New Facebook Story

Over 9 million people have profiles on the expanding world of Facebook now, but this growing community lost a member on Sept. 17, when Danielle Metcalf, a sophomore at the University of Connecticut, terminated her Facebook account.

“It started out as a fun thing,” she said, “but it’s become too serious.”
The Facebook minifeed appears on each users' profile and reports recent action taken by the user.

Danielle enjoyed looking at pictures, keeping in touch with old friends and communicating with classmates and groups. Recently, however, she found something more important than all that – her identity. She doesn’t want a Web site to define her character. Danielle feels Facebook gives people an unrealistic picture of who a person truly is. On Facebook and other social networks, a person is free to create an identity where you can be whoever you want to be. While people like Danielle are ashamed of this virtual identity, everyone else will do anything possible to keep it intact.

On Sept. 2, Facebook launched its latest features, News Feed and Mini Feed. News Feed, which appears on the homepage, highlights what an individual’s friends are doing on Facebook, and Mini Feed shows recent changes a person makes to his or her profile. Immediately, the Facebook community responded in an uproar.

By Sept. 4, 598,857 people joined the group, “Students Against Facebook News Feed,” and 86,585 people signed The Official Anti-Facebook Petition. The creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, wrote the community a formal apology and began to enhance and provide privacy options.

Talk about taking control. This intense response and quick rally shows just how much people’s Facebook identity means to them. Although people claimed the new features were direct violations of their privacy, it was much more than that. It was about control.