Okay, let’s face it. Facebook has long been a way to “keep up with everyone” (read: stalk everyone you know and even those you don’t know).

But the drastic new change to our Facebook home page crosses the line betweeen quiet stalking and outright invasion of privacy.

All right, it’s not really an invasion of privacy. It’s all the information that was available before, but now you don’t have to actively search for people’s updates or comments or wall changes, etc. Basically, Facebook took all of the effort out of searching profiles.

Ed Board admits that people naturally resist change, so maybe this will just take some getting used to. Even so, this change sucks! Ed Board has not talked to anyone that actually likes these so-called “news feeds.”

And that brings up another point: the term “news feed” is extremely misleading. People might appreciate the change if it were blatantly called ‘The Gossip Mill’ or something equally enticing.

Ed Board thinks using the term “news” to describe a comment on a photo or a relationship change will cloud the minds of high-school students on Facebook. It is not real news that John and Susie broke up because John caught Susie writing on another guy’s wall. These young students need to realize that there is life outside of Facebook, such as a war in Iraq and elections coming up in November.

If Mark Zuckerburg wants to have “news feeds” he should put brief updates from CNN as the dominant feature on our home page, not when someone adds a “friend” to their ever-growing list.

Even though this new feature is annoying and downright creepy, it has definitely enhanced gossip throughout the nation’s campuses (not to sound dramatic, but it’s true!) There are already global groups that have formed to “officially” petition Facebook to take off the news feeds. People don’t like them!

Now that everyone can see what events you are or are not going to (without actively searching), it brings a real-life stalker element into play. So when you are accepting that invitation to Susie’s birthday party, keep in mind who your “friends” are on Facebook and that they can all see it.

Ed Board reminds you to protect yourself because even before the news feeds came into play, you are always taking a chance when putting your information online.