Come on, Facebook. Really!

Has anyone (who belongs to Facebook) noticed the new messaging system Facebook has? As far as I can tell, they only released the feature yesterday. Now they save all your messages by the person you had the conversation with, not by subject. AND they will save all your live chat messages now. O_o Last night I noticed, after I had a chat with a friend I've made recently (*wink* if he's reading this. ^,~), that I could see everything we talked about, as opposed to having the conversation disappear into the ether as soon as we said goodbye and logged out.

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure I really like the new system. Messages and chats should not be grouped together. Messages are like tiny in-site emails, so there's a reason you want to save them. Chats are candid conversations between friends. Before the new feature, chats were private and fleeting, and it was fine that they got erased. Why would you want to go back to old conversations? Also, what if someone hacks into your profile (god forbid)? Now they're able to read all your exchanges with any of your friends, including your private chats!

Granted, you could archive or delete your conversations, but it doesn't seem like they worked on that part very much. You can only perform these actions one message at a time! I mean, come on, Facebook. Really! ~,~

Another thing: what's with the @facebook.com email address? What am I supposed to use that for? I already have a wonderful email account with gmail, thank you very much.

I remember when Facebook rolled out the new template for the profile page a few months ago. I noticed a few people, including my friends, complaining about it, saying the old one had been perfectly fine and they wanted it back. Well, that new profile seems like it's here to stay. It's okay. I've gotten used to it. But this, the new messaging, I will not stand for.

I've recently been reading "Born Digital", a book for parents, teachers, or anyone who's curious about the psychology behind our new "wired" generation. It's quite a fascinating read, and I promise to review it properly on my book blog once I'm done with it. It talks about the new creativity and convenience that digital life has given us, but it also covers issues such as privacy, copyright infringement, information overload, and things of that nature. This book has given me a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to the web now.

So yeah, I have to say I'm not happy with Facebook's new way of dealing with messages and chats at all. I'm certain I'm not alone on this. It just doesn't feel right. It's like a small invasion of privacy...

I'm going to try something here. I'll share this post on my Facebook Wall, and see how many people read it and respond to it. If you belong to Facebook and share my views on this matter, then please share this link on your wall. Let's see if we can cause a stir, get Mark Zuckerburg to notice us... I mean, I'm guessing we won't get that far, but still. Let's give it a try! Make our voices heard.

Come on, Facebook. Really!