By Brittney Renzulli

After three months of marital bliss, Mike and Katie have called it quits. Thirty-nine of your friends joined the group “My blood alcohol content is higher than my GPA.” John and Dana met randomly last week at ZBT’s welcome back party and are now in an open relationship. When college and high school students alike logged onto the popular social networking Web site Facebook.com on Sept. 5, they were bombarded with facts like the aforementioned thanks to two new features, News Feed and Mini-Feed. According to the Web site, the “Feeds” were designed to keep members up-to-date on the activity of their friends and groups, but to many students who use Facebook the new features crossed the line between networking and privacy invasion. Such students went as far as to form “groups” protesting the new features, and to create a Web site promoting a one-day boycott.According to a blog posted on Facebook by Feed Product Manager Ruchi Sanghvi, “News Feed highlights what’s happening in [a person’s] social circles on Facebook. It updates a personalized list of news stories throughout the day.” Ruchi goes on to post that “Mini-Feed is similar, except that it centers around one person. Each person’s Mini-Feed shows what has changed recently in their profile and what content they’ve added.” This content includes profile changes such as the addition of an activity or photo, new wall posts, friend additions, changes to relationship status and even posts on discussion boards.Despite the apparent good intentions of the Facebook crew who formed the feeds, not everyone shares enthusiasm for the new programming. “I thought the new Facebook was creepy and way too personal,” Laura McCormack, a freshman accounting major, said. “Before, people had to dig to get information on you, now they know exactly what has changed in your profile because Facebook tells them as soon as they log in, and it even highlights the new information so it stands out for everyone who views your profile.”McCormack is not alone in her feelings, as stated on Daywithoutfacebook.blogspot.com, “The Feeds feature damages what privacy was left on Facebook. Before Feeds, it was easy enough to stalk anyone at your school, and everyone on your friends list; but with the advent of Feeds, it is now nearly impossible not to be ‘stalked.'” Despite people blaming the Feeds for enabling stalking and giving out too much information, technically nothing illegal is being done. “This isn’t really a question of legality. It’s more of a question of what has become the new social norm,” said Law Professor Eric M. Freedman, who also teaches a course in Mass Media and the First Amendment. Freedman went on to explain that members of an older generation are more surprised that people are posting details of their lives on the Internet, while in contrast members of the current generation are surprised at the fact that the information they post is being passed around.Although Feeds have been deemed perfectly legal, after receiving feedback from members like McCormack, and threats of protest from various Web sites and groups, Facebook founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg came to the realization that the Feed feature needed to be changed. In a Sept. 6 post, Zuckerberg wrote, “Calm down. Breath. We hear you,” and informed users to “Stay tuned.” Two days later Zukerberg posted an open letter for all Facebook users, admitting within the first two paragraphs that, “We did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and even worse job of giving you control of them.” He went on to explain how he was going to restore that control to users.Zukerberg and his programmers established a new privacy page devoted solely to the Feeds. The page allows users to select which types of information go into their Mini-Feed and their friends’ News Feeds, and even allows members to completely turn off their Feeds so that no information about them is displayed.So are the new settings calming the storm that the Feeds created? Matthew Testa, a senior physics/secondary science education major, seems to think so. Upon the addition of the Feeds, Testa was “not a fan.” However, now that the privacy options are in place, he feels like he has more protection.”I would have to say that the options increase one’s privacy a little bit, if not more, simply because of the fact that they let you limit what others can see about your activity,” said Testa.Also, since the new privacy options have been put in place many anti-Feed groups have been deleted, and the “Day Without Facebook” protest has been called off.