What the New Facebook Means for Students

I can't think of a single student here at Trinity who doesn't have Facebook; hardly surprising considering the site is closing in on 500,000,000 (!!) users.  Facebook has been a go-to time-waster for most of us since high school, but if today's F8 Conference is any indication, it's about to become so much more.

In what I can only assume is an opt-in feature, you can have Facebook follow you everywhere on the net with a toolbar that will rest on the bottom of your browser at all times, keeping you logged into Facebook chat and updated on your profile activity and very-important Farmville crap.  Sites will also be able to (and they will) add "Like" buttons to their content, effectively meaning that your entire web experience will be linked to Facebook.

This is all well and good, but I think what might ultimately have the greatest effect on students is the new Docs.com feature.  Anybody will be able to connect to Microsoft's Docs.com with their Facebook account to upload documents and collaborate with friends.  While this isn't really any different than Google Docs, it's much more likely to be embraced by the less tech-savvy members of your group projects.  Not everybody has a Google account or is comfortable with Docs. EVERYONE in college is on Facebook and has at least a cursory understanding of Word.

Any way you slice it, college students' favorite site is about to change the internet, so get ready for a dozen annoying "1,000,000 strong against the new Facebook" group invites.

Comments

[Andrew]

I'd be careful about assuming it's an "opt-in" feature. Facebook is notorious for doing things that affects users' privacy without notifying us explicitly. I can't believe they get away with those easily ignorable notifications on the home screen.

[Shep McAllister]

Oh I totally agree with you. Facebook is pretty creepy. I don't think it would be in their best interest to force a big toolbar on us though.

[Vanessa]

I don't have a facebook, and although I get weird looks every time I'm asked "are you on facebook" I'm okay with it, its things like this that make my happy I didn't cave into getting one. I don't need facebook following my every move. How creepy!

[cjeam]

ZING!

It is, indeed, opt out. You have to individually block the associated apps that use it too. docs, paandora, yelp

They didn't change the layout or formatting at all, so all the knee jerk idiots who go:

"OMG they moved some buttons I have to spend a few minutes finding everything again. Change it back. I don't care that you spent thousands of hours with internal beta testers and layout designs and that ultimately it will be a lot better when I get used to it. I want the old way back"

didn't notice a bloomin thing.
...
i hate those knee jerkers

[Shep McAllister]

Wow I just noticed the Pandora, Yelp, et al stuff. It will be interesting to see how people react to this...could become another Beacon debacle.

[twin xl]

It's just amazing to think how Facebook has amassed sooooo many users in such a short time.