There’s a new trend sweeping the campus, and this timeit’s not fashion statement.
SMU recently joined the list of over 200 schools supported bythefacebook.com, an “online directory that connectspeople through social networks at colleges,” according to itswebsite. Similar to sites like Friendster, thefacebook.comwas launched on Feb. 4, 2004 by several students at Harvard.
After just over one week, nearly 1,300 SMU have signed up forthe free service, posted their profiles, and extended their list of”My Friends,” the feature that allows users to connectto students at their school and friends all over the country.
“I’m a really nosey person, so that’s why Ilike it so much,” joked Kelly Donohue, a senior finance andeconomics major, who enjoys reading through other’sprofiles.
Thefacebook.com provides information listed by usersincluding major, classes, contact information and relationshipstatus. (There’s even the choice of putting “RandomPlay” for what one is seeking.) Think of it as an extended,online version of Who’s New at SMU, our first-year facebook.
“It’s fun to see how connected the whole campusis,” said Donohue, referring to how thefacebook.com letsusers see all the students they are connected to through theirfriends.
The service also allows students to join and search for memberswho share their same interests, high schools, or groupaffiliations. However, the implications of thefacebook.com haveworried some SMU students, including individuals in the Greekcommunity.
“Because it’s so public,” said sophomore LauraMendenhall, “facebook could be a problem, especially the ideaof groupies.”
Not only can students become online friends, but they can alsoautomatically become groupies of the facebook’s groups ifthey know a certain percentage of its members.
But SMU isn’t the only campus now facing the issue.According to an article in the Vanderbilt Hustler, theinstitution’s Panhellenic Executive board recommended justseveral weeks ago that sorority women not add first-year women totheir “My Friends” list. Several Panhellenic chaptersat SMU have already brought up the issue.
Other students are just worried about the whole principle andsecurity of an e-friend community.
“I like looking at other people’s profiles,”said Caroline Sullivan, a first-year journalism major who is not auser. However citing her concerns for identity theft, she said,”I’m not sure exactly how safe it is.”
Nevertheless, thefacebook.com’s popularity isgrowing by the day as more and more students connect to the networkand poke each other, the site’s way of saying “heythere.” Or is it?
“We thought it would be fun to make a feature that has nospecific purpose and to see what happens from there,” saythefacebook.com’s creators. “You’re not gettingan explanation from us,” they continued.
Then again, that’s just the type of mystery that keepsstudents logging on to SMU’s newest craze.
