November 28, 2005

The Facebook

Just when we thought Social Networking sites may have passed away quietly, we sit down with a bunch of US college students and they rave about this great website all their friends are on. The site is called The Facebook and it basically connects you with all your friends at your university and other friends - like the ones you had at high-school - at other universities. Everyone seems to list their IM - so chats can be instantaneous.

Used by students of all years, the Facebook is particularly popular among the freshman year as it helps new students find old and new friends. It’s got the usual aspects that you expect from a social-networking site - message boards, networks of friends and introductions - but why it has become popular, we suppose, is that all these tools are perfect for such a socially frenetic community. In fact, the two killer aspects of the system seem to be (a) a way to tell your friends about parties and (b) a way to find new friends of the opposite sex.

As one Temple University student told us:

"Let’s say you received a message from a friend via the site about a party. You go to the party and you meet a cute girl there - but she only tells you her first name. The next days you can go to the Facebook, enter her name and look at all the photos of ‘Sara’ on the site to find her. Then you can ‘poke her’ to get some attention, and hopefully she’ll poke you back. It’s just cool."

The Facebook

Article categories: Web & Technology, Youth