Our generation was once dubbed the ‘MySpace Generation,’ but Facebook changed all that. The Web site surpassed MySpace in total number of unique users all the way back in April 2008. Today, everyone uses the social network to plan study groups, engaging in protests, set up dates, mourn troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and proclaim to the world that we are flexible enough to put our feet behind our head. Most major political figures also have a Facebook page.
My own Facebook habit started over a year ago. After months of admittedly self-righteous anti-Facebook disdain, I created an account as part of a scholarship program. The Facebook account was promptly allowed to sit and molder while I turned my attention to more important parts of the Internet, like Wikipedia biographies of Anglo-Saxon nobility. Don’t ask.
After moving back to the United States from overseas, I found myself using Facebook for the exact same reason everyone else does: to stay in touch with friends. For a while, I retained my high moral ground by pointing out that the friends I’m keeping in touch with are actually far enough away that the Internet is my only realistic option for close, consistent contact. However, since the advent of college, my friends list has expanded to include people I see everyday. I am not one of the obsessive users who uses the chat function to communicate with friends sitting three feet away. But I have finally been forced to acknowledge that Facebook has somehow become an inalienable aspect of my life and this generation.
Part of the ingenuity of Facebook lies in the lack of control users have over their profile page. There is no opportunity to alter fonts, backgrounds, music, or other aspects of one’s personal space. There is no MySpace. It is a community-oriented concept rather than an individualist one. And there is a seductiveness to its subtlety. Nothing about Facebook is in your face. The restraint of the white background, the uniform font and the soft, clear tone of the alert bell is in stark contrast to users’ lack of it. There is no room for pink, flashing, Comic Sans text or embedded YouTube videos of the Numa Numa Dance.
Despite its popularity, Facebook has faced criticism, particularly in the area of intellectual property. A change in Facebook’s terms of service in early 2009 to extend Facebook’s right to use material such as uploaded photos for purposes such as advertising even after users deleted them caused widespread outrage. (Facebook has since reverted to its previous terms of service.) Earlier, there was even greater indignation about the many hoops past users had to jump through to simply delete their accounts. This, too, has thankfully been resolved.
To its apparent credit, Facebook makes genuine attempts to respond to users’ concerns over privacy and intellectual property issues. Last month, Facebook announced a plan to improve its privacy and security features over the next twelve months. Yet the suspicions of many persist, even as Facebook becomes more prevalent — and powerful — and as new policies cause further controversy. Facebook brings us together, but as it becomes a more important part of our lives and our legal rights become more unclear, it becomes harder to leave.
Casey Petroff is a freshman in the School of International Service and a moderate liberal columnist for The Eagle. You can reach her at edpage @theeagleonline.com.
