Generation
"Y" takes a stand
Brooke
Tacker, Posted Sept. 21, 2006
Disclaimer: All information gathered for this
story came from Facebook.com to show how efficiently the social
networking site can be used.
When media giants like The Washington Post, The New York Times,
Time Magazine and The Wall Street Journal publish articles
about the same subject, it is usually considered a big-break
story, something important in today’s society. When
that story is covering an outrage response to a new function
added to the social-networking Web site Facebook claiming invasion
of privacy, a lot is said about this Internet-savvy generation.
Generation Y has made a new name for itself: the Facebook
generation.
Tuesday, Sept. 5, a new feature called news feed was added
to Facebook. It brought up a list of one’s friends’
recent actions on the homepage immediately after logging in.
Examples of actions displayed were groups joined, new friends
added, when someone posted on another person’s wall
and relationship status changes. The uproar began.
Complaints concerned with lack of privacy were feeding into
the Facebook corporation. Numerous groups with tens of thousands
of members were formed in protest of this new feature.
The word about these groups spread “virally,”
senior Kyle Bell, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
Penn., said. Ironically, it was actually because of the news
feed feature that these groups kept adding members exponentially.
Every time someone’s friend would join a protest group,
it would show up on all of his or her friends’ news
feed pages, therefore letting them know about the group and
then they could also join.
“When the news feed first came online, I thought it
was funny that anything I did would be displayed to all my
friends — including complaints against news feed,” Manku
Lakkur, graduate of Stanford University, Stanford, Cal., said.
Many users complained simply because they thought news feed
was annoying. “This was just stuff that people don’t
need to know about,” Bell said.
Others did not like not having a say in this feature being
added. “What I don’t like is the fact that it
is being forced on us,” student Tom Olver, Durham College,
Durham, North Carolina, said.
“I have no problem with news feed,” Lakkur said.
“What is important is that Facebook and other sites
clearly explain what information is being shared, what information
is kept private and what information is sold.”
The news feed feature brought to attention just what kind
of information young people are posting on the Internet. It
made many students realize what people can actually see, Bell
said.
“As the technology gets older, an etiquette about behavior,
sharing information, etc., will develop,” Lakkur said.
“The issue at stake is commercialization of the Internet
and what we put out there vs. what we control,” Bell
said. “News feed brought forefront that our information
is profit for them [Facebook corporation].”
Bell has since created his own Web site concerning commercialization
of the Internet with the slogan, “Turn on.… Log
in…. Sell out.”
One group, Students Against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition
to Facebook), now has 715,192 members. A link directed to
Facebook’s customer support page where users could e-mail
Facebook administrators directly was included on this group,
created by Ben Parr, a student at Northwestern University,
Evanston, Ill. There was also a link to the formal online
petition against news feed.
The bigger issue at stake to some is the amount of outrage
shown to this vs. lack of concern for bigger, global issues.
One group, “Why does Facebook News Feed incite more
outrage than issues that matter?” had a different approach
in expressing its opinions. This group, started by Durham
College student Ben Blackman, now has 114 members.
“Ok, so the new Facebook layout is annoying … but
what is more disturbing is that we only get angry and are
only prompted into action when a couple of annoying icons
pop up on our screen,” Blackman said on the group’s
site. “Let’s direct our outrage somewhere more
useful. We’re the most well-connected, well-educated,
mobile and above all empowered generation ever, so let’s
use that power to change genuine injustice in the world.”
Other users had a more relaxed opinion about the opportunities
available because of the advances in technology that have
been made for this generation.
“When the time comes for our generation to step up to
the plate, we’ll have more ways to organize ourselves
than any generation before us,” Lakkur said.
By Friday, Sept. 8, three days after news feeds launched,
a privacy setting was added in response to the protest so
that users could choose what was posted on their friends’
news feeds. This setting came along with a letter of apology
from Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg who explained the intent
was never to take away privacy, but rather to add a new feature
to make getting information and keeping in contact easier.
In response to the new privacy settings, the Students Against
Facebook News Feed group’s site contains an explanation
on their take of the situation.
“This group has decided it’s not going to declare
victory because there was not a loser, nor was there a winner.
Instead, there was mutual consensus between all parties and
together we made our voices heard and Facebook listened,”
the site stated.
In a society where technology changes daily, some Facebook
users express a more patient attitude.
“This situation shows more of a reflection on our society
than our generation,” Lakkur said. “We’re
in a period of change - new technologies, new global developments
- and issues are just beginning to take shape.”
Check out Bell’s
Web site to learn more.
