That’s not a popular view right now among many of my fellow Facebook members—to say the least. Laura’s time-stamped announcement is part of a new feature called “News Feed” that automatically posts bulletins whenever a buddy updates his or her personal profile. Think of it as Google News for your circle of friends: when I log in, each tiny tweak—Deona added “doughy breadd” [ sic ] to her interests (12:40 p.m.); Jeremy removed “muttering” from his favorite activities (11:41 a.m.)—registers on a single list that scrolls down the middle of my homepage. News Feed launched Monday, and the backlash was swift and savage. Benjamin Parr, a Northwestern University junior, immediately formed a group called “Students Against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook),” which calls on members to boycott by refusing to update their profiles. “You went a bit too far this time, facebook [ sic ],” he wrote. “We want to feel just a LITTLE bit of privacy, even if it is facebook. News Feed is just too creepy, too stalker-esque, and a feature that has to go.” By Thursday, the group had amassed 600,000 members.
All due respect to the swelling ranks of distraught Facebookers—10 of my “friends” have joined Parr’s protest, and several others have opted into similar groups, including “News Feed—You Suck” and “Facebook needs to chill the f**k out”—but Facebook has always been “stalker-esque.” Stalking—in its most benign, least “John Hinckley” form—is Facebook’s raison d’etre. Why do we log on a dozen times a day? (Assuming, that is, that I’m not the only one.) To keep track of who’s friends with whom. To lament that our exes’ new boyfriends look rather muscular. And to wonder why Michelle has left the group “Jews Who Booze.” By aggregating everyone’s updates, News Feed makes this mildly voyeuristic process easier and more enjoyable for all. It simply collects old information in a new place—and Facebook remains as private as before. I’m all for convenience.
Why the outrage, then? The problem here is that while most of us like tuning into reality television shows, only nutcases actually want to appear on them. Watching is fun; being watched is not. At first, it was unsettling to realize that Facebook was broadcasting my every move to the 207 people I’d chosen to “befriend.” Some of these bulletins were profoundly dull (“Andrew Romano added ‘Newsweek’ to his company info. 4:23pm”). But others—namely, the bitsy profile alterations that Facebook addicts obsess over, often at odd hours—can feel embarrassing when exposed on News Feed. (The other day, I added “burritos” to my list of interests—at 3:23 in the morning. I was hungry.) Nothing is as uncool as trying to be cool. And News Feed allows each and every one of your friends to watch, in real time, as you hone your public persona.
For me, that was a painful proposition. But it was also wake-up call. How necessary is it, I thought, to obsessively recalibrate my roster of favorite movies and music? Not very. In fact, it’s kind of immature. Weaned on a sugary self-esteem diet, we’ve grown into a vain generation with an insatiable appetite for self-expression—and plenty of places (Facebook, MySpace, blogs, AIM, etc.) to express ourselves. But it’s important to realize that People Are Watching (luckily, Facebook is limited to friends; other online outlets aren’t nearly as private). That’s what social networking is all about. My new rule of thumb: don’t do stuff online that you don’t want your friends to know about. If you’re embarrassed when a particular update appears on News Feed, it was probably gratuitous to begin with.
Hopefully, my peers will agree—and the News Feed protests will peter out. As Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote Tuesday, “Being able to know what’s going on in your friends’ lives is [cool]. This is information people used to dig for on a daily basis, nicely reorganized and summarized so people can learn about the people they care about. You don’t miss the photo album about your friend’s trip to Nepal. Maybe if your friends are all going to a party, you want to know so you can go too.” If it survives, News Feed will, I hope, earn a place of honor as a quirky, convenient chronicle of each user’s community: who’s dating, who’s hanging out, who’s obsessed with “Laguna Beach.” The lesson: let’s take responsibility for our online behavior and exercise a little discretion. Then we can get back to enjoying Facebook for what it is—a great way to stalk our friends.
And, of course, our family. Last night, I sent my sister a short Facebook message: “In a relationship, eh?” She still hasn’t responded. News Feed may be our only hope.
Editor’s Note: Washington Post Newsweek Interactive, publisher of Newsweek.com, distributes NEWSWEEK content onto Facebook.
