Notre Dame senior Paul Joice opens his e-mail inbox and finds
one new message. A young woman has requested to become his friend.
But before that can happen, the message informs him, he has to
confirm that they are, in fact, already friends.
Confused? You wouldn't be if you were a college student and
had heard of thefacebook.com, as most have.
Launched a year ago by students at Harvard, Facebook is an online
directory that connects people through their social networks --
mutual acquaintances, mutual interests, mutual backgrounds. It
has become a staple of student life at more than 250 colleges
and universities, including Notre Dame.
Users start by registering and entering information to create
a profile of themselves. More than a million people have done
so, according to the site. Some post only basic information like
interests, academic major, their dorm name. Others choose to list
more private details like phone numbers, addresses and their birth
date. Security settings guard against identity theft by restricting
access to certain information only to one's "friends."
One earns the friend designation by asking for and being acknowledged
as such by the other user. Such was the case with the young woman
who contacted Joice. He says he hadn't spoken to her since freshman
year but didn't want to appear mean, so he clicked to confirm
her.
Every detail you list in your profile can connect you with students
with the same characteristics or interests. For instance, Joice
lists Catcher in the Rye as a favorite book, so he can
instantly connect to other Catcher fans.
Facebook users create new interest groups all the time. Two
launched by Notre Dame students are the Anti-Popped Collar Club
(for people who think the fashion statement of wearing one's shirt
collar upright is trendy and East Coast snooty) and the Brady
Quinn Fan Club for admirers of Notre Dame's starting quarterback.
Others use Facebook to network. Duke senior Monica Kohli says
she "look[s] up people who I may not know but [whom] my friend
is dating" or to find someone's Instant Messenger screen name.
Nearly all students today use the IM computer utility to chat
or type short messages back and forth over the Internet, walkie-talkie
style.
Notre Dame senior Claire Fadel says Facebook is a great way
to find out what people she knew from high school are doing. "I've
found at least 20 people from home and now some of us have started
chatting."
Fellow senior Pat McCarthy is among those who view Facebook
as just another excuse to procrastinate about schoolwork, but
he says it does help to "stalk people, which is a favorite pastime
of college students."
So far Facebook doesn't appear to be ruining any students' lives,
but Susan Ohmer, assistant professor of film, television and theatre,
worries that it's another example of Internet interaction replacing
conventional socializing.
"Are we at a tipping point where people spend more time on this
than meeting face to face?" she asks. "I find it more concerning
than intriguing if this is the case."
(April 2005)
