Facebook Just Changed Your E-Mail Address Without Asking

Guess what Facebook did this week without you even knowing it?

On Monday, June 25, the social media monolith pushed a client-side update and changed everyone’s visible e-mail address to their own @Facebook.com e-mail address system.

I know what you are thinking right now. "WHAT THE HECK, I didn’t know Facebook had its own e-mail system." (They did this back in 2010; it failed horribly.)

So now when a friend needs to view your profile to get your e-mail address, he or she will see the @facebook.com email address assigned to you (all it does is send the e-mails right to your message inbox on Facebook) instead of your intended e-mail account.

Thankfully, it only takes 30 seconds to reverse:

1. Go to your Timeline, then click on ABOUT, which appears right under your relationship status, occupation, birthday details.
2. Scroll down to “Contact Info” (in the set of panes on the right side of the page) and click edit.
3. Change the symbol to the left of each e-mail address to full circles (SHOW ON TIME LINE SELECTION) for all the e-mail address you want to be visible.
4. You then want to set the @Facebook.com e-mail address to crossed out (HIDDEN FROM TIMELINE SELECTION)

Hey Facebook: we don’t like this stuff. Give us an option or a chance to opt-out of further headache creating nonsense. We didn’t like when you forced us all to use Timeline either, and we don’t like you poking around in our accounts changing details either.

By the way, can anyone enlighten me as to why, according to Facebook, the most significant life event after I was born was the day, years later, that I signed up to use the site? I realize people are posting ultrasound pictures of their kids on Facebook, but the insanity has to stop. Or I am going back to Friendster.

Gabe Fletcher is the owner of 1GeekMedia.com - Experts in Social Media Management, SEO Marketing & Web Design.

Find him online at http://www.1GeekMedia.com or on Facebook @facebook.com/1GeekMedia or on Twitter @1geekmedia.