The End of Facebook as a Closed Community?

You know, it’s funny. No matter how old you get, it seems like everyone wants to be the cool kid. That’s certainly the case with Facebook. Even though Facebook is the world’s largest social networking site, for the past year, the company has been playing catch-up with the world’s newest social media darling, Twitter.

The company’s efforts in this regard have led to some major changes to the website’s interface. The result has left many Facebook users angered and annoyed. Just this past March, Facebook switched the whole layout of the site, prompting major protests. Now, it seems, Facebook is hoping to further mimic Twitter with a major new change to the way messages are shared within the network.

In an effort to increase the amount of public data Facebook shares with the world, the company has implemented an “improved” Publisher application, which gives users the choice of sharing their information with everyone.

As described by TechCrunch, the feature works like this:

You can now control who you want to inform of your Facebook friends when you add any kind of content to the site. Here’s how it works: After writing a status, uploading a photo or creating other content from the Publisher, use the lock icon in the lower-right corner of the Publisher to access the drop-down menu. From there, you can then choose to make the post visible to everyone, friends and certain networks, friends of friends, and a custom list.

The idea of allowing users to selectively share content with the world is fine. The question is, will this alienate some of Facebook’s most loyal users? What made Facebook likeable compared to other social networking sites was its sense of privacy. Unlike MySpace, which has devolved into a spam-filled nightmare of glitter writing and loud unstoppable music, Facebook allowed people to make connections with friends and family in a setting that was clean and easy to use. As the site moves more and more toward a Twitter-like live streaming interface, however, the notion that Facebook is a “closed community” is being called into question.

I have no problem sharing information about myself online (I have a blog and I use Twitter) but, for me, that’s not what Facebook is for. I use Facebook as a way to connect with friends whom I might not take the time to personally e-mail or call. That’s it. In its effort to become more and more like Twitter, I fear Facebook may lose some of its value as a networking tool and become just another haven for self-promotion and spam.

Perhaps I’m overstating this change. After all, it is optional, so there’s a good chance that all the Facebook users who think like me will simply opt out. What do you think? Are Facebook’s attempt to become more Twitter-like helping or hurting the site?