It’s easier than ever to get to know someone – even in a matter of seconds.
The popular social networking site Facebook announced on Dec. 5 that new profile pages would be available starting the same day. According to Blogs.Forbes.com, the company said “it will gradually update everyone’s profile by early next year,” however this new profile is available now.
There are mixed feelings about the new profile changes among Penn Manor Facebook users.
“I wish they wouldn’t have made changes when I was just starting to get comfortable with how to use the old layout,” said Penn Manor senior Jeff Bitts.
Bitts has yet to change his layout, and doesn’t plan on it.
In an interview on 60 Minutes’ “Facebook” creator Mark Zuckerberg said the updated profiles “look to put your life’s story front and center in words and images.”
It can be good, because it can make things more easily accessible, however it takes the fun out of actually getting to know someone. Oh, and Facebook creeping.
Using this screen capture of Zuckerberg’s profile page, you can see the changes that have been made.
The first noticeable change can be seen right under Zuckerberg’s name. There is a “Wikipedia-like mini-biography of his life,” including where he lives, what he is studying and at what school, and when and where he was born.
This information was previously entered in his profile page before the update and Facebook’s new profile layout automatically used the information to create the mini-biography.
Seems like a good idea, especially for those who are trying to find something out about a user right away.
The second noticeable change is the move of the navigation menu. It’s been moved from the top center to a space below your profile picture in the left column.
So many changes with the navigation, so little approval.
“I’m not sure how I feel about the new navigation changes because it’s still so new. But I don’t think I am going to like it. It seems more complicated to use, but maybe in the long run it will be easier to use. But I think they shouldn’t have changed it. It was fine just the way it was,” said tenth grader Sophia Forte.
A greater emphasis has been given to users’ pictures; the picture page cleans up well and has added an “infinite scroll” to show all pictures that other users have been tagged in, as seen in the screen shot below.
If users want to see who your friends are they don’t have to deal with pop up windows anymore, because another update displays the user’s friends in a grid like fashion. Finding friends is also more accessible with an easier search bar located at the top of the “friends” section.
In addition users’ groups and friendships are more promoted. Users can select one of their groups to be displayed on the left hand column below the menu, in Zuckerberg’s he set it as his family.
The best has been saved for the last. The infamous “poke” wars have been given more prominence as it has been moved to the upper-right hand corner of the profile page next to the “message” function.
“The new layout makes it seem like you’re visiting your own personal page, it’s kind of weird; I’m not a fan. And did they really need to make the poke function more accessible? Let the poke wars begin,” commented Katie O’Connor, a senior.
Also, users can list more specific information about themselves in fields that are already filled out. For example, specific classes or project that the users completed can be added and other users can be tagged if they worked in collaboration.
Some people are resistant to change, and for some Penn Manor students Facebook’s format is something that should not be changed.
By Whitney Reno