A new look and feel is coming soon to a Facebook near you, so let’s chat about it, shall we? I’ve been hoping they would do something a little better with the Facebook News Feed soon, and it seems they heard my thoughts from afar. From what I can gather, it will be more optimized and responsive as far as the web is concerned, as well boasting a cleaner, more modern look and feel. Apparently, the images will be larger, the text richer and the overall experience will “…try to give everyone in the world the most personalized newspaper…” possible.

As with any changes made to Facebook, the verdict will be hilarious. Any time there’s a new switch or development, a vast majority of users (from what I’ve witnessed, anyway) immediately hate it, and are not afraid to let everyone they know in on the secret. All-in-all, this is a pretty big step for the company, too, as this will be the first major overhaul of the News Feed since it’s inception in fall of 2006. Insiders speculate that Facebook is trying to make a more photo-friendly environment, along the same lines as Instagram, to attract a younger, image-obsessed generation. For most social media sites, it’s all about engaging the user and having them stay on the site longer, which the new News Feed is hoping to accomplish, without driving users away.

Another new feature of the Feed is splitting it into subcategories: Music, Photos, Games and Friends. This way, users can pick and choose which information they want to focus on at any given time, and not be overloaded with too much visual stimulation at one time. We’ll be able to see what our friends are grooving to via Spotify, and customize who’s posts and comments you see in any given subcategory.

This sounds like a lot of new stuff to take in…and it really is. When you don’t update one of the most popular websites in the world for close to 2 YEARS, it may come as a big shock to your users. Hopefully, the transition will be a smooth one for the social giant…complainers aside.