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Printer-Friendly Mode'Thefacebook' fad hooks 3,000 plus SVSU students
August 25, 2005 —
By now, you've probably heard of thefacebook. It smashed into campus like a trendy mortar shell in the spring and spread like some infectious disease of picture posting and profiles. It comes pre-packaged with a Fight Club-like feel: underground campus network ballooning into a national phenomenon with millions of followers.
The first rule of Fight Club is-you do not talk about Fight Club.
But don't talk about thefacebook? Hell, nobody can stop.
On February 4, 2004, thefacebook.com was launched to the public and quickly overthrew instant messaging as the "if I'm on a computer with Internet access, I'm most likely to be doing this" fad of college campuses. A type of online social network, thefacebook gives users the opportunity to load a picture and personal profile onto the web site and search through the annals of members to select friends. Pick somebody and they are sent a notice via e-mail that you want to be their pal. If the invitation is accepted, you become friends and have access to their profile and a message board that parallels the old "whiteboard on the outside of a dorm room" thing.
What really sets thefacebook apart from any other site is the fact that it was founded by a student - a type of "for us by us," the FUBU of Internet social networking. Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg created the site to try and identify and socialize with other students at the stuffy Ivy League school. It wasn't for a class project, and he wasn't being paid to develop it - he just did it for fun. A week later, Zuckerberg had produced the basic workings of a site that, just a little over a year later, costs over $40,000 a month to operate and has 3.3 million users.
Interestingly enough, thefacebook has yet to branch out to other mediums. It remains a site accessible only to those who attend one of 832 colleges and have a valid school e-mail address. Therefore, there are no middle school wannabes, and the only way grandma is getting access is if she's a biology major at Northwestern.
Doesn't seem that special? Well, tell that to the 3,000 SVSU students who are members. Want an actual count of students on the site? Next to impossible, since someone new is joining what seems like every five seconds. So really, what is it that draws three million college students to devote time and energy to a simple Web site?
"I like reading everybody's profiles," says Amee Schmidt, a creative writing and literature major from Pinconning. "Even people you know, you look at their profiles and you see their favorite book or their favorite music and you're like, 'I can't believe they listen to that crap.'"
Indeed, profiles do provide a unique look into some students' lives and generally include anything and everything. Adam likes burning stuff; Maggie likes big sunglasses; Kim's favorite movie is Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead - all information voluntarily provided and viewable by anyone who is your friend or attends your school. What types of information does one need to provide, though? Well, that depends on the user, and can range from things as general as a name and birth date to things as personal as screen names, addresses and phone numbers.
Secondary education major Jennifer Prior has an account and has her number posted in her profile. When asked why she chose to include such private information, the 22-year-old Flushing native says, "I love meeting new people. I try to meet new people all the time. If someone reads my profile and decides they want to talk then, hey, that's cool."
One key feature of the profile is the ability to add, subtract and change information at one's convenience. For example, if your profile lists your relationship status as, "in a relationship with Joanie" and then Joanie cheats on you with Chachi, then you can proclaim yourself "single and looking" in just a few quick steps. Another positive is the ability to restrict information that can be seen. You can alter your profile so that information can only be viewed by your friends rather than have anyone at your school have access to your personal information.
An additional feature is the ability to create groups. On the surface, groups enable people from the same schools with common interests to come together in one place. For example, if a person really liked Everybody Loves Raymond, they could create a group with that name, open it to the public and everyone that did indeed love Raymond could join, chat on each other's wall, e-mail, or even talk on the phone or meet. However, these groups have also become creative outlets - the opportunity to display a college student's randomness with groups such as "MacGyver is my hero" and "I got stabbed by a protractor and have the scar to prove it." One of the more popular groups on campus is the SVSU chapter of "Advocates for more Cowbell!!!!," which pays homage to the famous Christopher Walken and Will Ferrell Saturday Night Live skit. Today, the group boasts 283 members - almost 10 percent of the total number of SVSU students registered.
Perhaps the biggest selling point to the Web site, though, is the ability to upload pictures. While members do have the option of not including a picture, the majority of people do indeed put their faces onto the Web site to be viewed by millions.
The photos give students yet another opportunity to show their creative side, as pictures of people dancing, laughing and holding giant, inflatable palm trees appear frequently. Of course, there are also a large number of photos of students drinking - perhaps the only thing students do more than visit thefacebook.
Carly Toyzan of Hemlock has seen some interesting pictures, and admits that there are some strange ones out there.
"One of my friends had a picture of themselves naked with a Gatorade bottle covering their privates," she says.
In the end, thefacebook only stands to get bigger and more popular on campus with the arrival of freshmen and other new students who have yet to access the site.
And while past fads and trends dictate that thefacebook will one day fade into the night, for the time being, this campus and almost 1,000 others continue to say, "I got a fever. And the only prescription, is more facebook."