Basically, it details how Facebook plans to do away with networks, as they've gotten too big. He says, "However, as Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we've concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy. Almost 50 percent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks, so this is an important issue for us. If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information.."
The whole plan seems like a step towards Twitter. Twitter has recently launched the Lists feature which lets you categorize people according to your preferences. I wonder what's going on here. I was under the impression that networks were one of strongest features of social networking sites, but now it appears that is phasing out. This does a number on the ideas that we have learned with searchability and the overall concept of networked publics.
I guess it makes sense that it's phasing out, though. It probably indicates that the usage of the networks is changing. People are no longer using the network search feature to find people near them or with things in common. Maybe people are using the sites to maintain the friendships they already have, with real people, who are in all different networks of their own. People are friends with such diverse groups that networks don't really matter except for being used as just another identification feature. I'll be curious to see where this goes.
I'm glad that you chose to write your blog about this because every time I sign on facebook I see the link to read the new letter but I never have time to actually read it and now I have a better idea of what it says..
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brittni, I did not read the letter from Mark because it didn't interest me and I didn't have the time either. I think doing away with networks is the wrong thing to do and will ultimately ruin the point of NETWORKING on facebook. If people are not grouped together within a regional network it will ultimately defeat the purpose.
ReplyDeleteI had the letter opened in a tab for a couple days, but I never got around to reading it. I'm glad you wrote about this. I noticed that my regional network doesn't appear anymore, so I wonder if this has something to do with it.
ReplyDeleteI saw it up there but I never had the interest in reading it.
ReplyDeleteI notice with these big changes everyone gets upset in the beginning, and then they grow to like the changes. When news feeds started, or when "new" Facebook came out people freaked out about it, and then people stopped caring and got use to the change.
So I had the opportunity to tinker around with the new settings. It appears as though Facebook might have learned how to dodge the bullet with feedback because they give you two choices now -- the new settings and the "old settings." It's actually phrased that way. So maybe they took a hint that people are adverse to change and want the option to leave things as they are. It was just funny to see that that's how they handled it.
ReplyDeleteAll of a sudden yesterday they added new privacy settings.
ReplyDelete