Facebook recently made some new announcements about possible upcoming changes to the site. One of the more controversial features is the possibility of Facebook sharing personal user information with third party applications to customize Facebook's user experience, unless users opt-out. This has been met with a lot of comments from unhappy Facebook users. Two such comments are included below:
"You have to stick to the promises you gave to people who logged in thinking that they access a secure social network. - Piracy and identity theft are everywhere but you are on the way to 'legalize' it, while we all become victims."
"It blows me away how FB continually wants to alienate its users. If this "opt-out" only information sharing passes, I will definitely be "opting-out" as a FB user."
The problem here is pretty simple. Facebook is turning into more of an opt-out experience, or in other words into an advertising site, as opposed to a social media site. One of the key points to remember about social media is that it ultimately is opt-in, which means that people choose whether or not they want to access a feature. Facebook, because it's gotten so many people on its site, has forgotten that. But as it continues toward this route of opt-out, inevitably it will become another MySpace, with people leaving it in droves because they feel they are being advertised to.
It is a fine line for a social media site to walk. They need to somehow find funding that enables them to host and maintain the site, but also do it in a manner that makes users want to be on the site without having to contend with a lot of advertisement, or sharing of personal information with third party platforms. We already get so much spam in our email from those same companies. Adding that kind of spam on a social media site not only forces more that information on us, but also creates more resentment.
Social media sites need to stick with an opt-in platform. While it may not be an easy way to bring in income, people want control over their choices, and more specifically want control over opting-in instead of having to opt-out. When the opt-in choice is taken away, people will opt-out of the actual site, and eventually Facebook will become another MySpace.