On top of TV, Playstation, AIM, e-mail, and Friendster, there is now a new online source of distraction available to Tufts students. On Monday, April 19, Thefacebook.com, an online student directory, expanded its network to include Tufts. As of Sunday, April 25, 2,004 Tufts students had already registered.
The website was created by Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg and initially only included Harvard students. Founding member Chris Hughes, also a Harvard sophomore and Thefacebook's press relations manager, explained Zuckerberg's intention upon creating the site. "He had the idea of a college social networking community that had fun useful features for students," Hughes said.
As a result of the website's success at Harvard, Zuckerberg, Hughes, and their colleagues decided to expand the network to include other colleges.
The first schools incorporated were Yale and Columbia, because, Hughes explained, many Harvard students had friends at the two schools. "We want people on the network to extend invitations to students at other universities," he said. The expansion plan has continued in this vein -- including only schools where there is some overlap between student bodies.
"We do absolutely no publicizing -- people come to it on their own," Hughes added. "We make sure people have heard about it by having a student body that is in contact with students at other schools."
Thus, just down the road, Tufts was a compatible addition to the network and, apparently a successful one as well.
With a great deal of talk on campus and over two thousand Tufts students connected in just under a week, Thefacebook's reception at Tufts seems to be quite positive.
"The addition of Tufts to Thefacebook could not have come at a better time," Tufts sophomore Julia Verplank said. "Now that it's crunch time with school, I am in desperate need of new procrastination tools. I especially enjoy the poking feature."
The poking feature has about the same effect as the actual physical activity -- the recipient is just informed that they have been "poked" and by whom.
Sophomore Mari Pullen enjoys communicating with friends from back home." It has been nice to hear from high school friends at other schools," Pullen said. "And lately, since my life has been a bit hectic, [it's been useful in] contacting people from classes that I've missed due to various activities."
Sophomore Jessica Schwartz had a similar concern. "The concept of having some random person ask me to be their friend just by looking at a picture seems a little awkward to me," she said.
Though Hughes admits that Thefacebook definitely has recreational components, he also believes it can have more profound effects on student interactions. "There is a component in which kids will get to know people they aren't as close with through Thefacebook -- someone you might just run into in a class, have one meal with," he said. "It has a certain ability to be a facilitator for social interaction."
There are also many useful aspects to the site, other than using it to procrastinate. "It's helpful when you are trying to get someone's phone number who you're not that close to," Hughes said. He explained that students can use the website to find people for study groups or "search for everyone who is a certain major in your dorm and then contact them and ask what classes you should take."
In fact, the site includes a feature where students can list their classes in their profiles. A member can then search for students in those classes or browse a list of all the students who have also listed the same classes.
Some students, however, are uncomfortable having such a vast amount of personal information accessible on the web. Pullen sees the information as a concern. "But I choose not to put a lot of that type of information online, such as my home address," she said.
Members do not have to fill out their profiles entirely -- you can provide as much or as little information as you desire. Also, the site includes numerous privacy options that can limit who can access to your information.
Some students worry that websites of this nature can bring out the more shallow aspects of the student body.
Sophomore Emily Kaiser joined Wickedparty.com, another online directory, earlier this semester. "I was excited about it because I figured that parties at other schools might be a good change of pace, but it turned out to be like Friendster with people whose primary goal in life was to 'get crazy,'" she said.
"I came here to meet people with more diverse interests than that. So reading profiles about how proud people are of getting wasted was a huge turn off," Kaiser added. "And I also kind of thought it was embarrassing because I'm reading profiles of Tufts kids, and they all came across as so shallow."
But students are enjoying the mystery aspect of the site, and the opportunity it provides to meet new people. Verplank explained, "I've always been fascinated by the fact that there are really random people out there who know a lot about me, but I have never even met."
