Not me. There’s a reason Facebook has outlived similar sites like MySpace and why Facebook dominates social media. It keeps reinventing itself, and making improvements.
Do I have to repeat the old saw that most people hate change?
I can still see everything I want on Facebook. It’s just laid out differently. It’s like the grocery store – once you get used to a particular layout, they change everything around. But like the “new” Facebook, the basics are still in place after they change the store layout….the milk and eggs are still way at the end of the store, and the high-markup impulse purchase items are still prominent. The can of beans that you’d find in Aisle 7 last week is now in Aisle 11, but it’s still there.
My “news feed” on Facebook is now a running display on the right margin of the page, and status updates and pictures posted by my friends are still on the “center aisle” of my Facebook display.
Early this past summer I was forced to make some huge changes and adaptations when my trusty 2005 Compaq desktop computer (which has been fully updated twice since I bought it) started to crap out. I’ve got a venerable HP (circa 1999) in storage “just in case”, but my computer guys told me it was time to upgrade. That meant switching from Windows XP to Windows 7. I had about a week to worry about it, because my computer guys custom-ordered a new desktop for me (a high-end Dell Vostro), so it took a few days for the Dell folks to build it to spec and ship it. I wrung my hands.
My friends and business colleagues kept telling me “no sweat, you’ll pick up Windows 7 with no problem”….and I kept thinking “I learned on Windows 3.0 and was always happy with Windows 98 – why do I have to go to Windows 7 on this new machine?”. As everybody found out, Windows 7 looks and runs a little differently, but it IS better than XP; and Office 2010 is better than Office 2007; and, in my particular case, because I record and edit a lot of digital audio for my “day” job, Adobe Audition 3.0 really is better than Adobe Audition 1.5.
The “new” Facebook is just fine. And I have no doubt that it will keep changing and morphing and developing and reinventing itself. The day I can’t keep up with it is the day I’m officially “old”.
I'm certainly not afraid of it as I'm the last person in the world without a Facebook account, and I have no plans to get one. I just think it's more trouble than it's worth for me, and no one I know has ever asked me about my Facebook account. I have no trouble staying in touch with people I want to stay in touch with without it, and as a very private person, I just don't want a lot of information about me out there. But that's just me, and for those who think it's great, more power to 'em. Whatever works for you.
ReplyDeleteTotally with you on the "day I can't keep up" concept. But here's my take: the pushback this time has been more aggreessive because of the time it costs us to learn the new look.
ReplyDeleteAnd time is the new currency. I'm not particularly fond of the sweeping changes that Zuck & Co. have foisted (I love using that word) upon us because I'm BUSY RIGHT NOW. Could you do this when I have some time to learn and absorb the changes?
Of course not. Like Microsoft, Apple and Obama, you think you know what we want....but that's why people are pissed. It's not the new interface. It's that we're all real busy right now. And you're making our lives more complicated.