Almost everyone is on it - even if they won't admit it. And if they hadn't tried it before they got to Brown, many first-years gave it a whirl within days of arriving on campus. It's being used by some admissions officers to bring first-years together. It's TheFacebook.com.
Modeled after Friendster, The Facebook is a social networking Web site launched at Harvard University last spring and introduced to Brown and other colleges throughout the semester. Today, the site allows users with valid e-mail addresses at 58 colleges and universities to create profiles that include their photograph, interests and dating status, and then "befriend" other users who catch their eye - or at least impress them with their stated devotion to "Donnie Darko," Jack Kerouac or Belle and Sebastian.
The Class of 2008 is already well-versed in Facebook-speak, with more than half of first-years already signed up for the site, mostly due to word of mouth from older friends and siblings at Brown and other schools.
Users can send messages to others, or they can "poke" them, indicating something no one quite understands. And amongst other choices, users can let the world know they are looking for "random play," a "serious relationship" or even "whatever I can get."
All of which lends the site a decidedly flirtatious air.
"It's questionably, like, a dating site," explained Drew Durbin '08, who first heard about The Facebook from Elisha Anderson, an admission officer and first-year advisor who e-mailed students from the Virginia area to let them know about the site. Durbin prefers to remain mysterious, even in cyberspace - he lists only his e-mail address.
After another admission officer, Samantha Smith, told incoming students in the Pittsburgh area about The Facebook, several future Brown students met at a sandwich shop to get to know each other, said Julia Brooks '08, who was in attendance. "It was nice," said Brooks, who listed her summer plans as teaching "Science on the Road" classes at the Carnegie Science Center.
In Connecticut, Julie Flynn '08 and Ian Sherman '08 used The Facebook to organize a dinner for nine Brown-bound students at a Chili's restaurant. A few days later, Flynn invited her new friends over for a swim in her family's pool.
But not everyone is a believer. "It does seem useful as a stalking tool," mused Alex Hogg '08, who registered on The Facebook Thursday, even though he originally heard about it months ago from his high school friends in Huntington, N.Y.
"I think you're hot, wanna be my friend?" Hogg joked, imitating a sample Facebook message. "I just got myself on it today. I sign on my account and it says, 'You have zero friends.' It's kind of depressing."
Sorry, ladies, Hogg's taken - but his girlfriend goes to another school.
