For those of us who are (still) on Facebook, almost all of us that is, the not-so-recent changes in the structure of it’s homepage have probably changed the way we use and think of Facebook, whether we realize it or not.

On the previous change, I got used to it. It was intuitive enough and it served it’s purpose. With the latest makeover a few weeks ago, things have once again changed considerably – for the worse. It’s not about being an old lumbering dinosaur, averse to change and all that. But Facebook appears to have lost it’s core purpose. It’s no longer a bilateral (or multilateral) communication platform, but an up-to-the-minute broadcast platform.

Worse still, what it broadcasts is noise. In engineering speak, the signal-to-noise ratio is hopeless. More often than not, what the home page calls the “News Feed” is filled with updates on who has taken what quiz and what kind of person/animal/car/song the quiz determines the user to be. The quiz application engine is probably a natural evolution of the copy-and-paste quizzes that were once popular a few months back. But what it has evolved into is more of an irritant, akin to a buzzing pesky fly than anything else.

I don’t f**king care! I’m not interested in knowing what kind of car you will drive, what kind of animal suits your personality best, or how and when you’re going to die; at least not when it’s determined by a presumably unintelligent application engine. What I want out of Facebook is a way to catch up with friends whom I don’t get to see often, not the mindless brain-rotting junk that is beginning to resemble what we get on over-the-air television or radio broadcasts.

So let’s get our front row seats while they’re still available and watch Facebook go the way of the Friendster and all other fads that have come and gone before it. Resistance is, and always has been, futile.

Related posts:

1. Facebook – The next Social Engineering Tool
2. something new from Cisco again
3. 12th july 2009