By Ayla Mulvey
Round Table reporter
Facebook seems to change its privacy settings more often than some of its users post. As a result, many users, particularly teenagers who are more interested in using Facebook socially than worrying about privacy settings, are exposing potentially sensitive information about themselves without really being aware of the consequences.
One of the more noticeable changes has been in the appearance of the news feed. The feed, to which people had grown accustomed, has changed in the way it is set up and how it looks.
There is now a section for the “Top Stories” from the user’s friends, which is located at the top of the news feed. “Top Stories” shows the posts of the people who are online at that moment, making it easier for people to know what exactly their friends are up to.
ABC News recently did a story on Facebook changing its look, stating, “Facebook says, ‘That if you’ve been away from the site for a few days, you won’t be in danger of missing the most important posts friends put up.’”
Also on the News Feed page, there is a box at the top right corner called the “Ticker,” which shows what the user’s friends are doing right then. Whether they are updating their own photos, commenting on someone else’s photos, updating their statuses, commenting on other people’s statues or so on, anything anyone does is visible to the user’s friends.
Facebook has also changed the way people “Poke” one another. Users now must go to someone’s profile to poke them, which means they are viewing that person’s profile as well. This can cause some feelings of creepiness, especially if the user doesn’t know that person very well or at all.
There is also a new way that information is shared. Facebook now shows friends the pictures that a user has commented on even if they are not directly friends with the person who posted the picture in the first place. This ends up allowing people that the user doesn’t know look at his or her photos.
People who also use Facebook mobile have to put their phone number in to make that work. Adding a phone number to Facebook automatically shares that number with friends on Facebook. As a result, the number is available to people the user doesn’t really want to have it.
There are ways to change security settings, though; users just have to edit their information so that it’s only visible to themselves instead of to everyone; that way users choose who sees what they post and say.
Facebook can be, and is, a safe website, if users are smart and aware of the information, pictures, and comments they post. They also need to stay updated on all the new changes of Facebook, and make sure that they are only sharing what they really want shared.
