By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-04-05 21:35:35 | Word Count: 664
Recently read an article detailing the new changes being implemented by Facebook that allows users to now turn their Facebook profiles into Facebook pages. I have read several articles, heard it explained quite a few times and I still don’t really get the purpose. Scratch that, I do get one purpose behind the change as it relates to big businesses and the uber-popularâ€"when you have a page instead of a profile you can then have more friends. Big whoop. Okay, perhaps I’m not getting this because my 500 or so Facebook friends leave me quite a bit of room before reaching my friend max of 5000 so I don’t know the affects of having potential friends that can’t get to me but this just seems like something to do more than something that’s actually necessary.
For those of you that are unaware, switching from profile to page allows you to forgo the accepting friends process and now friends can simply “like” your page to have access. That’s the plus. That’s all you get.
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Here’s what you lose: when you switch from profile to page you lose your entire profile; as simple as that. All those status updates, all those important games that you’ve loaded, all those pictures that you’ve spent countless hours importing, all those emails, all those insightful wall post, all the witty exchanges, all the personal bonds, gone. I’m inclined to ask, isn’t everything you lose exactly why you joined Facebook in the first place? Wait, almost forgot to mention, when you switch to page from profile and you lose these things, they are gone forever. That’s it.
Perhaps if you are, in fact, big business and uber-popular losing this stuff may not matter to you. Perhaps you don’t mind starting over from scratch with a mere profile picture and a few likes. You want to know what you just may mind, however? You may mind the fact that the username you currently operate under may or may not transfer over to your page with you. You may also mind the fact that all possibilities of interacting with us peasant profile users will no longer be within realm your capability. Personal contact is the new wave, businesses, don’t want to veer away from that when your competitors are doing just the opposite.
Maybe none of this is alarming to you. You could very likely be sitting there reading this thinking yea, and, so what. I’m just offering a little forewarning here, guys. This just isn’t seeming like a good idea. If you want an unlimited number of people to have access to you or your business perhaps you should think of joining Twitter. There are no caps on followers over there. If the people liked you all that much they could also just visit your website. That is why you created that website, isn’t it? For people who have an interest in you to be able to access you and get to know you better. You didn’t have to give you anything for that, did you?
Here’s the deal: there was nothing broken to fix here; at least not on your part. If Facebook wants you to have more friends they should just up the limit. You shouldn’t have to change for them! Not for Facebook, not for anybody!
