Has Facebook Gone Too Far?

By: Kelsey Martin

As college students I am quite confident in assuming that every student in our class has at least heard of Facebook and most likely have a profile of their own.

With that being said, I propose a question to you, have the features on the social network of Facebook gone too far? It seems each week a new feature is added to entice its members, which reached 30 million members in July 2007. Facebook now allows users to not only network among each other but also to post photo slideshows, top friend and song lists, profile tracking, wall graffiti, honesty boxes, daily bible verses and the list goes on and on. With more than 200 new applications added to Facebook, users have reacted differently all over the Internet, including many blogs being created where users can discuss Facebook. The interesting twist is that Facebook did not develop all 219 applications themselves and instead have allowed corporations such as Forbes, iLike and Ford Models to launch applications through Facebook. This has created a vast array of opportunities for Facebook to monopolize on their already popular website, not to mention the numerous advertisements sold as banners with the click of each page.

But the new applications have stirred up a large amount of users who disagree with the relevance of many new functions and feel a violation of privacy with others. Facebook which started out as only available to college students has now broadened to almost anyone with a valid email address. This opens the networking options for professionals and students alike however are the new applications necessary for the original goal of Facebook: a social network? It seems that Facebook is beginning to look more and more like MySpace, but how far will the monopoly of Facebook go? For more information check out an interview with Time Magazine and the Facebook site’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg.