Tanner Weimer
College English – Beder
4 Mar 2015
Changes of Facebook Nowadays, kids would rather comment of each others Facebook status instead of have a real conversation. Facebook used to be a tool to help people connect with others, but now, it has changed to become a website almost only for entertainment. Over the years, its design changed from a plain list of information to a whole “news feed” of posts from friends and companies. In The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, he says the internet has changed to become less useful and more fun, and Facebook shows that this is true. College students used to use Facebook to find their classmates and other students but now they use it to procrastinate and have fun instead of doing their work. Facebook in 2005, 2010, and today in 2015 all show changes from information to entertainment, just like Carr says has happened to the internet. Facebook in 2005 was very simple and focused on information about people instead of advertisements and stories. In fact, when Mark Zuckerberg created ‘The Facebook’ it was supposed to be only for college students. The old Facebook profile just listed all of someone’s personal information without things like statuses and likes. Carr says that the computer used to be just a simple tool. The old Facebook was simple too. A profile was just blue, white, and grey, and included information like someone’s email, school, and birthday. People could use this information for useful things instead of entertainment. There were some advertisements, but they looked just like ads on any other web page, not using the Facebook font or colors. The old Facebook focused on friends and information, not big companies and entertainment. It was easier to use the old Facebook without getting distracted, and it was more academic then it is today. By 2010, Facebook changed a little bit, but not completely. Now, people could use Facebook even if they were not in college, so its website changed to support new younger users. Peoples profile became a “wall” that included more than just information. It included status updates with “likes,” numerous photos, and ads on the side that are targeted at people based on what they like. Facebook was now becoming more focused on entertainment, as ads, pictures, and status updates all had to do with social life instead of academic information. Instead of making users look at a person’s information at the top of the page, now in 2010, Facebook showed what people were doing at that very moment at the top of the page (their status). Facebook started to care less about what somebody was like in general and more about what was happening to all your friends in the short term. In The Shallows, Carr discusses how it is becoming harder to focus. Maybe it is harder to focus because Facebook is always concerned with small bits of information but not the big picture. In 2005, Facebook showed a general picture of someone on their profile, but in 2010, it showed a snapshot of what they have been doing recently in short status updates and pictures. The new Facebook (of 2010) showed that the internet is less about useful information and more about quick entertainment. Today in 2015, Facebook has changed completely. The news feed in the middle is full of not only posts from your friends, but also huge photos, advertisements, and videos from companies who are trying to entertain you. On the right of the page there are “trending” bits, showing what is happening in the world in short one sentence descriptions. A Facebook profile now shows a “timeline” of events instead of useful information. Old Facebook’s list of personal information is now much harder to find, since Facebook is more concerned with