Facebook Keeps-A-Changin'

Facebook.

You all know it. You all (probably) use it. If not, then

good on ya.

I'm one of those many who were sucked into the fascination that Facebook seems to hold for those who liked MySpace, but didn't care for the way it operated. Yep. Facebook has got something for everyone. Status updates? Check. Sharing websites, images, and videos with your friends? Check. Groups dedicated to anything and everything? Got it. Games you can play? Sure thing. Blogging? Sure, that's what Notes are for.

I like Facebook. I may not be one of those people who updates every 5 seconds on what they're doing, like those who Twitter, but hey if I want to leave something under my name that says what movie I'm watching, at least I can do that. But some things have been changing lately, and I'm not to certain I like what's been happening.

Mainly it's just the News Feed thing. When bored, I liked to scroll through this long, long list of what my old high school friends who I've since disassociated from were up to. Oh, they had a baby! Heyy, they added so-and-so as a friend! Neat, that person is into that sport! Though it is interesting to read every once in a while, I try not to get too caught up in the happenings of my News Feed.

A few days ago I noticed that my Feed was a bit shorter than usual. It confused me, but after playing around on the site a little bit, I found that if I wanted to see more posts, I had to click the "View Live Feed" link at the top of the screen. Lo and behold, there it was. All the juicy gossip I'd missed for the past few hours.

That small victory was bittersweet. I had conquered my problem: not being able to see what my friends had been doing; but I noticed that another problem had bubbled to the surface: I had been getting upset about not being able to see their updates. I had let Facebook get to me!

I guess it's normal for this age, though. Nothing is private anymore, nothing is sacred from prying eyes. If someone wants to know what you're up to, they have many ways to find out if you're on of the many who utilize websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. It just goes to remind you that you've got to be especially careful of what you put out there. I mean, there are all sorts of people out there, who would jump at the chance to catch you off guard if they found that you were "out to so-and-so store lolz." So let's be careful, shall we?

Just a thought.

-Manda-