“Stalkervile”

Face book has become an essential part of our daily lives. By staying connected to face book we are able to bond around with the people around the world. In other words, I would say that it rather keeps us updated with almost everything that is going around in the lives of our peers. Well face book has come up with another new function for its users all around the globe. It allows its users to subscribe every step or action one takes. It may be a dream come true for many or a worst nightmare for the rest!

Face book is found testing a new ‘subscribe to’ feature, which will allow users to receive alerts every time any specific friend will take some action on the social network site. This does sound interesting to me, however many who read this will be a little unsatisfied. According to  a report on Mashable.com the feature is being tested and only selected face book users can see a ‘subscribe to’ button under the profile pictures of those individual who they want to keep a follow of. Thus, this new feature will make sure that we do not miss the activities of those individuals who we have subscribed too! Way to go face book! Now you will become more addictive. However I see some positive elements of this feature, for example in the case of people involved in relationships, the spouses, best friends ‘the subscribe to’ feature will be  a dream come true. The hassle of opening inbox, wall posts, photos every time will be over, this it will also make sure that not a single action is missed out of that one special person who they are keeping a track of. Moreover, the feature will initiate a new level of understanding in the form of each growing list of new ‘subscribers’. This will actually tell us who are your true friends or which ones are just another statistic in the Face book world. It is not easily acceptable to update someone with your actions 24/7.

However, I also see some negativity attached with this feature. It can lead to arguments amongst close friends, especially best friends that why they are not allowed to ‘subscribe’ to your every face book move. Even there are a few things we do not like sharing with our best or close friends and want them to remain private. Sadder would be the part that all those other friends in your list would actually be waiting you to subscribe them, thus this will show if you consider them significant or not. To add in this new move to reduce privacy online by allowing people to follow your constant updates is a risk, to put it gently. In addition, one should be prepared to take mental notes of who is on their ‘subscribe to’ list every time they do an action. This can be troublesome! For Face book addicts this will be pure entertainment of online stalking. Gone are the days of Orkut stalking, now we can say Face book has it all!