FB has really become very integrated into the education system... I know exactly what you mean about professors being easier to reach there than elsewhere, which boggles my mind.
And, now that you mention it, FB has really wormed its way into the activism scene as well. It's especially worrisome when you consider that they have no trouble altering and censoring their users' newsfeeds. I've literally been told by non-profit and political organizations, when asking for an alternative to facebook, "well, we have this other site but it's never active..." or even "we don't really have anything other than FB." It's amazing how much trust people want to invest in a corporation that obviously does not have their best interests at heart.

I'm glad I never got into it, myself. I can understand reading news articles and stuff there at times, I suppose, but the fact that it's so heavily monitored and orchestrated and public just makes it a huge no for me.

Yeah, I wish psychologists would avoid doing shit like this. Because psychological studies are important! We need those to advance as a culture and society. But... doing largescale experiments on random internet users? No, bad, stop.

Yeah, me too. Still, a lot of people are shocked by this turn of events, so sharing the news around is likely to get people talking about it, at least. I'm more astonished by the number of people I've seen (elsewhere) trying to say it's "harmless" and "so what?" and who will still be using FB without a thought.

Yeah, I sort of expected something along these lines, myself, but the fact that they're revealing it as just some natural and harmless evolution of their site is what gets me. As if the public (and their users) don't have any right to be put off by this... as if being unnerved by mass manipulation of emotions is illogical.