Stalking just got easier...if you're on Facebook that is

Ahh well, too many thoughts about this Bebot "controversy" (and I use that in my snippy, anti-community, condescending, I-don't-understand-anything, low-blow, academic way =P)

but always a sucker for complaining- I give you this...

Editorial: Facebook increases stalking measures

(from Collegiate Times)
So you wake up 10 minutes early for your 9am and do you spend those precious minutes reading over material for that day’s lecture? No, probably not. You’re most likely already in “facebook mode,” or the mind frame that, whenever possible, you must be logged on and looking. Looking for what? Eh, whatever you can find. The latest statuses, new friend requests, wall postings...

Well, for those of you who just so happened to “facebook” (sadly, a new verb in our collegiate vocabulary) early yesterday morning, you’re aware of the site’s latest, scariest advancements.

It seems like in the past few months, the facebook team has done a lot of advancing. What happened to the old facebook where everyone put up their “best picture” (because, come on, we all know that you really didn’t look like that) and stalked people harmlessly, checking out the cute guy in your biology classes’ favorite music each day? What can compare to the joy of adding new classmates as “friends?” Sadly, that facebook is gone.

Those days are gone and while some new features have been great additions, such as FaceTix and others, it seems that they’ve taken it a little too far.

Honestly, notes? If you want to “blog,” go log into your MySpace or Xanga account. Avid MySpace haters are sure to notice that Facebook, indeed, may just be going in that same direction—the MySpace way.

Statuses, or Facebook away messages as some call them, were the beginning of the creepiness. Sure, now they may seem useful and most of have fallen victim to them, but honestly no one really cares if you’re “SOOOO hungover” or not.

Furthermore, are these “News/Mini Feeds” really necessary? Since when is it news that you’ve added a new friend or that your new favorite TV show is now Laguna Beach Season 3 instead of season 2? Last time we checked, no one cares.

If you can find out all these things about people just by logging on, is there any point of face-to-face interaction or talking anymore? Next, you’ll be able to have facebook parties online and update your friends of each beer pong win and the course of the night’s events. On the other hand, I am sure you could already do something like this through the usage of “your notes” and by “tagging” last night’s pictures.

We all might as well connect “facecams” to our computers so that everyone can see and know exactly what we’re doing at any given time.

Get the point? If not, try this one. If Facebook's next move is to add profile stalkers (or the idea that you can see exactly who has looked and how many times at your profile and vice versa), would you still facebook? I think not. After all, isn’t that the underlining point? To stalk? Whether it’s your best friend, boyfriend or that hot guy or girl in your Chem class? It’s safe to say that the majority of students at Tech would not facebook so much anymore if such strident counter-stalking measures came to be.

Now, hopefully the team of facebook geniuses is smart enough to never to include this, but it does put things into perspective for those of you who think all these new advances are “cool.”

Another question for facebook is, what exactly is the appropriate age to de-activate your account? Or by that we mean, sigh, leave the world of facebook. Can we continue to have these accounts and profiles when our own kids are in college? Wouldn’t you love for your kids to see your picture count up to 7,984 and which one of your college friends hasn’t aged a bit? All you have to do is change emails, merge networks and TADA, facebook just might last forever.

It’s become as much of part of the collegiate (and high school now- blah.) experience as football games, classes and parties. However, all of this aside, the fact of the matter is that the majority of us will continue to use the site and facebook everyday.

For those of you who think that whoever doesn’t like these new changes should just remove their profiles and stop complaining, well, you might have a point, but haters and lovers alike know that it is an addiction and one that is still hard to break.

Bottom line: with all these new stalking techniques, it may be time, if you have not already, to adjust those “privacy settings.”

And another good article by wall street journal (wait, did I just say "wall street journal" and "good" in the same sentence?)

New Facebook Features have members in an uproar