The Occidental Weekly

People resist change. Be it in the forced adoption of a new currency à la the Euro in the European Union or the outmoding of particular technologies, people struggle to move away from that with which they are comfortable. The latest manifestation of this phenomenon has already started to occur as Old Facebook has officially made the transition to New Facebook.

Facebook was founded about four and a half years ago. In this time, it has logged over one hundred million users across the globe. In an attempt to maintain this astronomical growth, the creators of the social networking marvel redesigned the interface. The result is "New Facebook." Of the myriad of users, only thirty million have tried New Facebook, despite the fact that it has now entirely replaced the old interface. While some have simply passed over New Facebook, many more of these people are resistant to the new, superior edition of the social networking website.

Those updating the website have said that part of their goal was "to make the site clean and simple by reducing clutter." They have certainly accomplished this, removing useless sections, joining together related components, and revamping previous features. The mini-feed is gone, now integrated with the wall. The new wall displays all the goings-on of the profile posting updates of every variety. What's more, now friends can comment on anything from pictures to status updates to recently added friends. With the wall so large and multifaceted, other features have been relegated to different tabs; personal information, photos, and particular application boxes can each be found in a separate section of the profile. These improvements make New Facebook distinctly superior to its antiquated predecessor.

And yet people continue to complain, declaring New Facebook not as "comfortable" as the original. They prefer a display that does not fully utilize the breadth of the screen of modern computers. They take solace in the obtrusive application icons displayed immediately beneath their picture. They want people viewing their profile to have to look at the witticisms posted under "Activities," the obscure, hardcore bands that comprise their "Favorite Music," and the classic literature that proves their smarts tucked away in "Favorite Books." These faithful few are handicapped by the conversion to New Fcebook; they must now resort to reminiscing about "the good old days." For the rest, New Facebook is an effort to be applauded, a step forward that keeps the website at the cutting edge of social networking.

Riley Kimball is an undeclared first-year. He can be reached at kimball@oxy.edu.

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