Spring Break
Facebook grows popularity one 'friend' at a time
By: Kenny Ryan
Issue date: 8/20/08 Section: News
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Well, to be precise, Facebook is the "It's a Small World" ride of the Internet.
All of your friends are made available to you at the click of a finger. You can view their pictures, write on their walls or chat with them with an instant messaging feature. Nowhere else does the whole world feel so small and easily available as it does on Facebook.
And you don't even have to wait in line to enjoy the ride - take that Walt Disney.
Facebook is an undeniable necessity among many college students. It is a common occurrence that two people meet for the first time, they talk, they flirt, they exchange names, and then they go home and Facebook each other only to never meet again. Expanding ones online social network is a moral imperative, a measuring stick by which one gauges their popularity.
And yet, Facebook has grown into more than just a way to measure someone's ego. For some, Facebook is a part of their self-identity. People compose lists of their favorite books, favorite movies and favorite quotes.
"Surgeons: 'Sometimes wrong; never in doubt.'" Adorns the wall of an aspiring doctor.
"Here's looking at you kid," marks the profile of a Casablanca fan.
"If you were a booger, I'd pick you first," the sign of a true romantic.
One look at someone's Facebook and you know their birthday, phone number, favorite book, address and you can even see their best summer swimwear if you browse their photos.
Some may complain that Facebook is too stalker friendly, but students don't let that stop them.
A year ago a "news feed" feature was added to Facebook. Any time a Facebook friend updated their profile, it would promptly let you know. Hundreds of groups formed in protest, decrying the feature as being a tool that gave stalkers, perhaps even sex predators, too much of a view into their lives.
But times change, and today complaints are less frequent. Some might say that Facebook is turning the country into a nation of Internet stalkers.
The Facebook interstate highway of information is a two way street. Girls scout out their guys, guys scope out their girls. Everyone on Facebook knows that their information is privy to the public eyes of anyone who wants a peak, the sauciest of photos and quotes are hung out like bait on a fishing line.
As comedian Dimitri Martin once said about social networking sites on The Daily Show, "On the down side, they are loaded with sexual predators. On the plus side, they are also loaded with sexual prey."
It's a pleasure that Catholics give up for lent, a fetish to avoid in one's new years' resolutions, an addiction that has no end.
If you've got it, flaunt it. This might as well be the slogan of the website where modesty is rarely an observed virtue, and friendship is just a mouse click away.
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