Lifehacker recently posted an article about how to "Get Your Facebook Account Under Control." Included in the article are various tips such as how to cull down your friend list and clear out apps you didn't even know you had. In addition, there is a new browser extension called Social Fixer that can change the look and feel of Facebook, disable the lightbox-style photo viewer, hide your news ticker, track who's unfriending you and even get rid of timeline. This new browser extension - and the article itself - point to a new breed of Facebook users. Those of us who have been members since day 1 are both completely entrenched (we use it for events, for birthdays, for "information gathering"), and also overwhelmed (timeline? instagram?).
The idea that we would need help "managing" something that seems so uniquely under our own control feels counter-intuitive and yet necessary. Will consumers adjust to their own Facebook fatigue and accept that they need to accordingly alter the way they use the site? Or will Facebook themselves catch wind of this particular kind of user and help him or her navigate a cleaner site? It certainly feels as though there needs to be a more malleable mechanism to let users view Facebook in whatever way is most comfortable. There are only so many news feeds a person can take without leaving the site and not coming back.
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