Facebook, the buzzword of the 21st century, is everywhere: the news, movie theaters, the homepage of computers around the world and soon a stock exchange.

As college students grow up with Facebook and other social networks, they are becoming savvy to the networks and some are making changes to their habits to avoid expending large amounts of time when logging onto these sites.

From its beginnings in a college dorm room at Harvard in 2004, Facebook has grown to over 845 million active users, more than twice the U.S. population, and isn’t stopping there. The company is looking to reach its one billion active users milestone in 2012.

While college students have always been the largest group of Facebook users, the site is growing within other groups and demographics. Children and older adults are joining the social media craze and signing up for Facebook, according to a study done by Ad Age.

Though 21 to 24 year olds are the leading age range of Facebook users, the percentage difference is small. Facebook has become popular for all ages 14 to 63 and the non-college age ranges have been growing at a faster rate than college students, according to Mashable, a social media news website.

The second most popular age group of Facebook users is men and women 35 to 44 years old, and they are two percentage points behind the younger group in amount of users on Facebook.
Adriane Bradway, a senior at SMU has seen a dramatic change in her social media habits over the past four years, especially on Facebook, which she spends the most time on.

“I remember freshman year, Facebook was new to me because I didn’t have it in high school so I was on it a lot more looking at pictures and keeping up with friends from home, but as I have gotten older I realize I have more important things to do.”

Bradway balances her time between working in a full-time internship, holding an executive position in her sorority and seeing friends and family, which leaves her little time to spend on Facebook these days.

“I think as people get older they should start to wean themselves off it.”

However, Bradway is not typical of many college students interning and looking for full-time jobs. Some employers think that’s just what students need to do as they head out into the working world.

Mike Merrill, the president of the Social Media Club of Dallas and Director of Marketing at ReachLocal, advises students to look at their online habits when entering a professional setting.

“As students get into the professional world it’s important to recognize how [their] interactions affect folk’s perception of them. I think the productivity loss is the issue as they will be so used to spending so much time on that site and when they get to the workplace they won’t have that kind of time,” said Merrill.

Few students, like SMU senior Robert Mills, stay away from social networking sites completely.

“I don’t use Facebook because I don’t feel like I have the time. I have no problem with Facebook, in fact I’m sure if I used it that I would enjoy it, but I have a busy schedule and don’t know enough people who use it sparingly to believe that I could resist spending a lot of time on it,” he said.

Others are on sites like Facebook and Twitter constantly. Laura Shepard says that she spends more time than she would like to on social media.

“It’s hard to estimate how much time because I am pretty much checking Twitter and Facebook on my phone all day long. I don’t spend too much time sitting on my computer looking at those sites but I do spend a decent amount of time scrolling through twitter throughout the day,” she said.

Mills even attributes much of his college success to not being on Facebook.

“I have seen enough bright kids sit down to study in the library then spend half the night on Facebook to know that it is incredibly addictive and distracting.”

But he thinks that he misses some things by not having a profile.

“I absolutely feel like I am missing out on some things by not having Facebook. As a simple example, I know I constantly forget my friend’s birthdays because I don’t have Facebook to remind me.”

Shepard likes to use Facebook to stay in touch with friends from home because it is easier than calling or texting but thinks there is a loss of face-to-face interaction when using social media.

But Students have many other opportunities in using social networks besides browsing friends’ Facebook pages. Social media gives students the platform to brand themselves and show potential employers their personality and skills beyond their resume.
Merrill advises all students to join LinkedIn, “Not only do they have to have a fully keyword optimized profile but they need to connect to anyone and everyone they meet in the recruiting process.”

Merrill also recommends LinkedIn as a place for students to connect and reach out to career decision makers and personal blogging to stand out from other students or applicants.

“You want to make sure that when a recruiter Googles your name, they find content that distinguishes you, like a blog post on a given industry topic and how you could make it better,” said Merrill.