Last week, the über-popular social networking site Facebook, home to the profiles of 9.5 million college students, had a new surprise for those who logged on: the addition of a “news feed” page that instantly brought users up to date with the latest goings on in their friends’ profiles. But you already knew this, of course, because it’s been the most talked about issue on both campus and the web lately.

I might as well get the painful part out of the way—I am not a Facebook user. I dropped my account a little over a year ago, and (as I’ll tell anyone who will listen) haven’t looked back since.

Part of it was the realization that I was using Facebook more as a tool than a place to interact with my fellow students. Holy shit, I can’t remember the name of Melinda’s best friend and I’m meeting them in five minutes…Better Facebook it! But perhaps the biggest factor was my somewhat belated realization that Facebook blatantly stands against what is one of the greatest of American institutions: the right to privacy.

And it’s a right that is quickly evaporating, even if you don’t post your information on the web for all to see. Warrantless wiretapping, the leak of AOL search engine records, the renewal of the Patriot Act, calls for comprehensive citizen ID cards; all have been in the news lately. Typically, liberal college students might look at the idea of national databases with disgust, but in reality, the social network phenomenon has already done all of the work for Big Brother. We’re putting ourselves out there for anyone to see, while hardly wondering whom “anyone” might be.

Facebook has recently revamped their “news feed” feature to allow users to opt out of both issuing and receiving, and Mark Zuckerberg, the site’s creator, has released a very touching apology. This was in the wake of hundreds of protesting Facebook groups springing up overnight, which gained 700,000 supporters nearly as fast. If only we could muster such support for the lesser issues like war, famine, or disease. Instead, we have Day Without a Facebook, a weblog calling for a boycott of everyone’s favorite waste of time on September 12 to protest the feeds. I’m sure taking a short break and then flocking back to the site will make a huge difference. Hooray for activism.

Here’s a newsflash for your “news feed:” Facebook can’t invade the privacy you willingly give away yourself.

If you are mortified by the fact that everyone will instantly know you added the Dave Matthews Band to you favorite music list, then maybe you should reevaluate your dependence on the “poke” feature and just go talk to somebody. Or, if you can’t stand not knowing the vital tidbit of whether your eleventh grade lab partner (now attending UCLA) is still interested in “random play,” change your privacy settings. You can have your web crack and smoke it too. Kudos to Facebook for creating such a versatile, and underused, feature.

Now that I think about it, I’m actually coming around to the idea of the “news feed.” It all hearkens back to The Good Old Days, when one would actually be held accountable for one’s words and actions. A foreign concept, I know, but when 9.5 million of you deem it necessary to chronicle your lives on a public forum, and then complain when other people actually look at your information, maybe it’s time to think about the way you communicate.