Nearly a million and a half angry Facebook users are protesting recent changes to the Web site. The leader of the furious online mob? A smiling eighth-grader from Apex who wears his baseball cap backwards and likes to play FarmVille.
His parents were not aware of this.
“He's doing what on Facebook?” asked Jonathan Woodlief's father when the Observer called their home near Raleigh on Tuesday night. Then David Woodlief and his wife, Claire, got Jonathan, 14, out of bed. He came downstairs and explained just how he happened to become the leader of one of the fastest-growing viral movements online. The group was booming by more than 100 new members a minute on Wednesday.
Adding a twist, Jonathan Woodlief just happens to be a dead-ringer for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, another social media whiz kid, who is only 11 years older than Jonathan.
Jonathan is the administrator of the Facebook group CHANGE FACEBOOK BACK TO NORMAL!!, which has exploded over the past six days in response to unpopular changes the site made to its News Feed feature. The feed now shows only those friends Facebook deems “important” to you.
Maybe innocence helps a cause. Jonathan added a note to the side of the group page that reads:
Lets try and get 10,000,000 people to join! :)
Jonathan did not start the group, but joined it a day after it was started because he dislikes the changes. Poking around on the page, he noticed that the group had no administrator, the person who configures the page, allows posts, and makes rules for the group. Believing in the cause – and perhaps sensing an opportunity – “I clicked a button to make myself the admin, and that was it,” he says. Since then he's been inundated with messages and friend requests from around the world.
“We had no idea,” David Woodlief said after the situation became more clear. “He's a smart kid.”
f you don't like the new FB, here is a way you can change it back. Look to the top left menu and click on MORE. Then click and drag STATUS UPDATES to the top. Click on it and that becomes your default and it is like it was before.
ReplyDeleteBut instead he and everybody else just like him are asking for a feature they already have.
ReplyDeleteIn the filters on the left hand bar selecting "Status Updates" will bring back the news feed as we all knew it before the most recent change. In fact, clicking the "More" link down at the bottom allows you to drag the "Status Updates" button to the top, making it the default feed.
No, it isn't as intuitive, but it works.
I personally am a fan as this brings Facebook more in line with how it used to be.
thanks both of you, I had never noticed those settings.
ReplyDeleteFYI - Switching back to "Status Updates" will only get you just that, status updates. You won't get the videos, links, pictures, posting from games.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the new Facebook, I don't like the old Facebook...
ReplyDeleteSheesh, kid, it's all noise.
Wanna stay in touch with your friends? Try email and phone. My Facebook page is feeling pretty neglected, as all useless things should feel.
thank you Marty, the world's demise is officially over now that I have moved my status updates back to the top.
ReplyDeletenothing more to see here people.
Why is this news? Every time facebook has gone through a change someone has made a "1 Million Strong to get back Old Facebook" group and everyone talks about how they are going to delete their account. Never gets anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI joined facebook in college back in 2004 when it first started and it was only accessible to college students at approved universities. It was a nice way to keep up with high school buddies and meet new people on campus. Now I cant wait for it to go away. I'm not playing down its usefulness as a networking tool or keeping up with friends, but its overwhelming presence in our society today is borderline disturbing. Stop wasting your time on the computer and go out and create meaningful relationships.
I don't like the new Facebook setup, but I could live with it. What really angers me was the fact that Facebook has been broken for two weeks straight. I got 14 error messages in a row while trying to add a friend. When I tried to post a status update, I got a message: "You don't have permission to do that." Othertimes, "Facebook is having a problem. Try again later." Over and over and over.
ReplyDelete