Right, well, ahem… sorry.
I know that so many of you, literally one or two, count on my blog for an inaccurate and uninspiring account of life here at Imperial. I’m sorry to have deprived you of it, yet again, by getting distracted by work. Damned work. Pesky. I think work should be abolished. It’s inhuman. Who’s with me? Let’s get this revolution started.
Well normal service shall now be resumed.
Talking of revolutions, do I sense one in the air? I’m sure you’ve noticed, being an astute university sort, the anger that’s beginning to boil over this week. Petitions are being arranged and signed as we speak, but I fear it’s only a matter of time until trouble starts. People are getting angry with a constantly meddling, “change-for-change’s-sake” regime, and they want shot of them.
For once, though, it isn’t New Labour. I am of course talking about this week’s changes to Facebook, that vital student resource. We’ve all been getting very angry! Take a look at this petition. You see? Angry. We’d only just got used to the ‘old’ Facebook. Why bring in a new one? It wasn’t broke, so why did they fix it? Now, when we want to see a friend’s photos, note or event, we don’t have to search through a thicket of status updates, profile picture changes and the like. No. Now they’re thoughtfully arranged on the right hand side, most recent at the top, older at the bottom, so we can find them easily. Even worse, there’s now a constant, chronological stream of status updates in the middle. They’ve actually gone and separated out the most interesting part of Facebook, and made a feature of it. Why should We have to put up with this! I mean really, trying to make Facebook a better, more user friendly environment. The cheek of it. We want the old Facebook back, and NOW! 134,830 people have said so, the last time I looked. Except, I haven’t.
As you may have gleaned from the above, I don’t have much truck with these people. Shockingly enough, I actually like the new Facebook layout. Its is, really, easier to use, which is good because hopefully now I’ll spend less time on it sheerly because I’ll be more efficient. Also I don’t spend my life on the stupid website, which probably makes a big difference! What puzzles me most, though, is why people are getting so angry about it. Why are people acting as if Facebook have just spat in their faces? Perhaps it’s because the new layout genuinely is worse, but, as I’ve said, I don’t think that’s true. Perhaps it’s because people just don’t like change. That’s more likely, but I’m still not sure that’s it.
I reckon that it might have something more to do with people getting used to being able to influence the things that they never could before. Now you can vote people off TV shows with your ‘red button’, you can be a ‘citizen journalist’ by ‘having your say’ on the BBC’s website, or you can broadcast your ill-informed opinion over the interweb in blogs, much as I’m doing here. As a result, I think many people, including myself, come to believe that their opinion somehow matters. On the whole, I think that this is a good thing. People’s opinions do matter. After all, we live in a democracy, believe it or not. But Facebook isn’t one. We are users of their service, which they very kindly provide for free I might add, so why do 23,294 (and counting) people believe that they’ve been punched in their virtual kidneys?
They’re busy bashing their ‘red buttons’ to try and ‘vote off’ the changes. Well, call me a cynic, but I don’t think it’ll work. It didn’t work with them the last time they changed the format (for the better), or the time before that, or the time before that. If, (prospective) students and Facebook users of Imperial, you don’t like the new layout, close your account. Commit Facebook-suicide. Then Facebook might actually listen because they’ll lose their precious advertisers. It’s a tried and tested way to influence business, the free-market. Jumping up and down in a virtual tantrum won’t really achieve anything. Or you could, perhaps, give the new layout a chance? Just a thought. You got used to the last one, didn’t you?
Anyway, I’m off to finish off (or start) my last essay of term.
Later.