Facebook seems to becoming the brand we love to hate. The latest initiative that the public are unhappy with is the new look. Which, despite Facebook users uniting and forming groups of over a million people, is here to stay.
This is just one of the many decisions that have proven controversial for Facebook, the dust is only just settling from Beacon ““ a tool which helped track and share information about user’s shopping habits and activities at other websites. However, back in 2006 Facebook was again in the bad books for introducing what is arguably now their most popular feature – the news feed.
All of this comes amidst contradictory reports saying that the public are fed up with social networking, while figures are actually showing the opposite. Has Facebook become such an institution in people’s minds and lives that any change is upsetting purely because it is unsettling?
I reckon that the problem is that the online commentators are a different audience from the majority of Facebook users. Most of the people posting negative comments about the site will reside firmly in the early-adopter group whereas most of the actual users of FB are late-majority.
The site is catering mostly for the latter audience hence the distance being felt by the former. This has to be the major reason for any discrepancy between the comments and the visitor stats. D’you not think?
The amount of people with status’ displaying their displeasure at the new design and the various groups set-up to campaign against the new-look shows there are a lot of users unhappy with it.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with that last statement on ‘change being unsettling’ what with the criticism aimed at the site first over allowing non-students to sign-up then the news feed. It will take time for it’s users to adjust but they will learn to live with it and eventually love it!