Frustrating Facebook: Many frequent users disapprove of Facebook’s recent changes

After a tough day of school on Sept. 21, one of the first things students did was, of course, check their Facebook. Only on that day, they were in for a surprise—one many of them did not like.

When users logged on to Facebook, they quickly noticed glaring changes. The most prominent of these was the up-to-date “ticker” on the right side of the page, connected to the top of the chat bar. In addition, the site had mixed the “top” and “recent” newsfeed into a confusing jumble of new and recent posts.

Another change that was made earlier in the year was the split of chat into two sections; one of the person’s most chatted friends, the other an alphabetical list of all other online friends. In addition, a new “Lists” feature was added to the left side of the page to allow people to categorize their friends by their relationships.

Many people find these changes to be useless annoyances and a waste of time. Many feel that the “ticker” makes stalking much easier and find the old newsfeed more convenient.

One strong opponent of the new Facebook look is sophomore Isabel Malcolmson. She dislikes the changes to the newsfeed and the chat bar.

The fact that the chat is divided into two different parts is bothersome, according to Malcolmson, and she wishes it were still in alphabetical order.

“The updates are useless and they make everything a lot more confusing,” said Malcolmson. “It was fine the way it was.”

“I can understand why they want to do things like this and try new things, but I don’t think they understand that people don’t want changes unless there’s something that actually could be changed,” Malcolmson said.

However, there are some who like the changes with Facebook. Sophomore Ethan Gelfand argues that the new “Lists” addition on the left side of the page makes it easier to view the news of the people users are close with.

“I know I will learn to love [the lists feature] later as the lists make it easy to see what the people I choose to see are doing and the people of my future college to see what they do. It’s neater and more organized,” said Gelfand.

He did, however, voice a dislike with some of the other updates, especially the changes made to the top and recent news.

“The only thing that annoys me is the new [newsfeed]. I liked the old one where you just click top news and then click recent news; that was easier,” Gelfand said.