What happens on Facebook, stays on Facebook…or does it?

Facebook recently changed the “like” function to allow the social networking site and other web sites to connect closer than ever. If you’re a Facebook user, you may have noticed that now the interest section of your profile page includes several icons next to the list.

The icons represent a huge change in the way Facebook will function from now on. Well, I shouldn’t say from now on because Facebook has been creeping (no pun intended) toward this end for a while. Those icons represent a connection to an outside web site. Information that was made to be private is now being shared with someone in the “outside world.”

In theory, both Facebook and the partnering web sites will be making money off of the increased traffic flow that the connection creates. The term dubbed to explain this connection is “synergy.”

Professor Julian Dibbell, a visiting professor for the College of Media who specializes in the area of new media, feels that the change can be seen in many ways.

“I sympathize with Mark Zuckerburg,” Dibbell said. “It’s hard to figure out how to commercialize a social networking site. But depending on where one stands and who you associate with it can change how you feel about the switch.”

Dibbell, who has written technology stories for both New York Times Magazine and Wired, said that from where he stands it looks like the people in his circle are getting sick of Facebook.

While in the beginning, Facebook was a warm, cozy place to socialize with friends on the Internet, some feel that it is becoming increasingly commercial and sacrificing the secretive ambiance for some cold hard cash.

“The goldmine Facebook is sitting on is information about what people like,” he said. “It’s treacherous to cash that in.”

For the average college student, this can mean a few things. Many people I’ve talked to simply hate when anything changes on their Facebook — they would rather it stay just the way it is, thank you. Dibbell also pondered that this change could be like many of the others Facebook has implemented where people freak out for awhile, and then forget about it.

But, unlike many of the other changes made, this change releases personal information about users to anyone who would like to view it. Instead of a few hundred friends, now many aspects of a personal profile could be visible in a Google search. Of course, no one really knows how this will actually affect people yet, but it could mean bad news for college students.

Many students already block their profiles to potential employers and family members to conceal scandalous party photos and loads of pictures containing alcohol. What if this method was no longer able to fully hide their activity? For example, if someone has “Jack Daniels” and “Beer bongs” in their “interests” section on Facebook they are now also linked to those web pages. This could be seen if a potential employer was to Google their name, whereas before this was not possible.

It seems like eventually nothing will be private online. It seems that the mantra “What happens on Facebook, stays on Facebook” may no longer be true. And what used to be a convenient place to chat may soon be twisted into a place to exploit users for cash.