Chapter 2

I had a plan for this blog, to talk about communication on the internet in kind of an order, but since technology is ever-changing, and even though some things fade out, they are always relevant. Someone, somewhere is chatting in a chat room. So, my main topic for this post is a jump ahead of what I wanted to talk about, but its relevant to me right now.

Facebook.

Facebook is a networking site that is popular among college students. It used to be that only college students or alumni could sign up, but then high schools were able, and now I think everyone can use it. You set up a profile within your school's network. From there you can add friends, create or join groups, create or respond to events and event invites, there are tons of different applications you can put onto your profile page for other fun ways to interact with your facebook friends. Not to mention the message feature, the wall posting feature, and pictures, those are among the most common uses.

Why is that relevant now? Well, I hear other people, as well as myself, referring to facebook all the time. At club meetings, for example, lion ambassadors have a group on facebook and does my publicity committee . Blue and White Society created an Event on facebook to advertise, and there was some time used at the beginning of the meeting to get email addys so that the secretary could "friend" those not on her list already and invite them. Lion Ambassadors use the Event feature to advertise certain events as well.

Personally, I use it to keep in touch with friends, and keep up with my clubs and events, and share pictures. When I first joined I was pretty sure it would sit there mostly unvisited, like my MySpace profile which gets visitors every couple months, of course thats probably about how often I remember to put something in my blog there or put up some pictures. But I actually find myself using it, and not just sitting there playing some of the games or quizzes, but for useful posts on my club groups, or something. Friends from high school, or before that, have contacted me through facebook. Its one of those things that surprised me with how useful it really is.

Face to face communication is still important, although, its probably something that happens less often because of being able to cyber-socially-network with other people within in your college (or other any other network) online. The thing that I find funny about this is that everyone on my friends list is either related, goes to penn state and I have been in a club with them at some point in time, or is someone I went to school with at some point in time. These are people I actually know, and a good majority that I could find on campus if I had a question for them. But its easier for all involved to drop a message on the group wall, the friend's wall or inbox, to ask something. It takes me 5 minutes to do that, and they have the convenience of getting back to me when they log on. Because of class and work schedule (even though I work on campus) it would take me longer to actually track someone down. I think this is true for a lot of people who use facebook, their friends are their roomates, club members, friends from other campuses, other schools, relatives, old friends, people they actually know and not some random person who wants to be added because they "liked your profile" or some other such nonesense that happens on other network/profile type sites like Myspace.

Any facebookers out there? Anti-facebookers?