Facebook's Uses Go Beyond Communication as Networking Force Students Find Long Lost Friends and Last Hurrah Dresses
By Synne Chapman '07
News Staff Reporter
Facebook.com, a popular social networking site frequented by Choate students and others, is rapidly becoming much more. It has surpassed many other means of communication for high school and college students, often preferred over email and cell phones. Even those who want to receive their messages and wall posts when away from the computer can sign up for updates via Facebook Mobile, a system that allows users to receive them on their cell phones, instead of using the phones alone as they were originally designed.
Nowadays, it is a rarity to encounter a Choate student without a Facebook account. Even those who were originally wary of the idea of posting personal information on the internet and who feared “Facebook stalkers,” or people who obsessively look at another person’s profile, have been lured into joining. Alex Peruta ’07 recently jumped on the Facebook bandwagon: “I’m still worried about some aspects of
Facebook, but I want to keep in touch with my Choate friends when I’m at college next year, and Facebook is the easiest way to do so.”
Communication and Celebration
Most Choate students say they use Facebook to keep in touch with friends from home during the school year and with friends from Choate during the summer. “Being away at boarding school means that you miss a lot of what’s going on with your friends at home, but with Facebook, you can still know most of what’s happening by looking at pictures your friends post of events like Homecoming or Prom,” said Becca
Stebbins ’07. Drew Ruben ’07 agreed that Facebook helps students keep in contact, especially when people move away or change schools. “Now that I live in Wallingford,” says Drew, “I use Facebook to stay in touch with friends from Avon.” The majority of Choaties use Facebook on a daily basis, both to share personal information, like pictures of dances and special programs, and to spread awareness of events like the “March to Arch,” a Student Council-sponsored
protest against Sit Down lunches publicized through a Facebook group.
Choate students also use Facebook to recover lost information, such as cell phone numbers. Meredith Mosbacher ’07 recently created a group called “My phone bites and I need your number” in an effort to retrieve the phone numbers she lost when her cell phone was broken a few weeks ago. Facebook can also help students avoid horrifying situations, like showing up at the Last Hurrah in the same dress as
someone else. A Facebook group called “CRH 07 Last Hurrah Dresses” was specifically created to avoid such a situation and allows girls in the Class of 2007 to upload pictures of their dresses to discourage others from purchasing them.
Keeping In Touch 24/7
According to Mathilde Williams ’07, “Facebook serves as a way to keep in touch with friends and family, and to reconnect with friends from elementary and middle school.” In addition, sixth form students frequently use Facebook to see which college their classmates will attend next year. Mathilde added, “Facebook can also help ease the move to college by allowing future classmates to meet through various college-related groups.”
Jeriel Ong ’08 also uses Facebook to find old friends with whom he has lost touch. He says, “Facebook gives me a chance to drop a message to them every so often to see how they’re doing without the need to find a land address or a phone number. The greatest thing about Facebook is its ease of use: you can keep in contact with friends without needing to
call or find an email address. Some adults may see this as a shortcoming of our generation, but I think it’s amazing.”
An Open Network
One thing most Choaties are not fond of is the fact that now Facebook is open to everyone, a big move from the seclusion that the high school and college only Facebook once provided students. There have been Choate teachers on Facebook before, but now even parents can join Facebook to check up on their children. Jeriel suggested that Facebook is turning
into Myspace, another popular social networking site that is even more open than Facebook. “As Facebook becomes more and more popular, more companies will try to put advertisements on Facebook, until it becomes what Myspace has become: banners on every page advertising one thing or another. This will turn users away,” he said. Despite these grievances, many Choate students are satisfied with Facebook’s expanded uses and rely on it for day to day communication with other Choaties and the outside world.
Patrick Li '10 explores many of Facebook's extended uses, which facilitate student communication PHOTO/Michael Tsai '10
