“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

Posted on by Rachel Schwartz

In 2003 Mark Zuckerberg created ‘Facemash’, an early way for college students to interact, a network that I was too young to be familiar at the time. In the 15 years since its inception, Zuckerberg’s brainchild has evolved significantly, becoming a network used by over 2 billion people worldwide. I have witnessed some of the most radical changes that Facebook has made but was not around for the early days. User’s profiles were minimalistic in design, including a profile picture, basic personal information and contact details, but since then we’ve seen the addition of music interests, television shows, featured photos etc. User engagement was encouraged by ‘albums’, and ‘tagging’ friends in photos. In 2006 we saw introduction of the mini-feed, which enabled users to offer regular updates about their lives which has now evolved into Timelines. Facebook has moved away from a social network and towards a social media platform, promoting content, advertisements, and memes.

Recently CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made it his priority to enact serious changes. In the Facebook post, where he proposes his new mission to “fix Facebook,” Zuckerberg writes, “I’m looking forward to bringing groups of experts together to discuss and help work through these topics.”  In my opinion, I’m still satisfied with the way Facebook operates. I do wish that there was more privacy disallowing Facebook to “suck up all of our data,” as this Washington Monthly article has put it. It is concerning to realize how little control we have over what we see, but hopefully this class will allow me to understand more about these platforms and protect myself accordingly.

 

One thought on ““If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it””

  1. I agree with your wish for Facebook to use less of our data; it’s rather frightening to realize just how much they know about us! I enjoyed taking a walk down memory lane as you discussed the evolutions Facebook has made over the years – remember when our Facebook ‘timelines’ were known as ‘walls’!

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