Ryan Breedyk & Noah Godwin
Contributing Writer
& Assistant Sports Editor
Graham Shea / Asst. Photo Editor
Pepperdine students have found a new weapon to help combat the seemingly everlasting social boredom that plagues our fine institution.
The online meet-and-greet Web site, theface book.com, has exploded across campuses everywhere and is the newest trend at this trendiest of schools.
In just the past seven days, hundreds of Pepperdine students have flocked to this phenomenon that has even attracted a few professors. This Web site allows college students, faculty and alumni a place to, among other things, hook up.
Any person with an e-mail address from a participating school can create a profile, complete with picture and contact information, free for all other members to see. Members then have options to add friends, join groups and “poke” other members.
Poking someone does not involve any specific message, but instead just fills the recipient with that warm feeling that comes when the message flashes, “You’ve been poked!”
And if you’re curious about how some of your long-lost high school buddies, or enemies for that matter, are doing in college, chances are they’re on thefacebook.com, too.
It easy to tell if one of your friends has put on a little more than the “freshmen 15”or if this friend is still using that dreaded junior prom picture to broadcast his/her image to the world.
Lest this new online community be stigmatized as another medium for college students to be shallow and vain, thefacebook.com goes to great lengths to make certain that students connect on deeper levels.Yes, the picture is the first thing other members see, but the profile helps open a window for others to explore the deeper levels of one’s soul. After all, the profile does provide the person’s favorite movies, music and quotations.
It even provides an idea of what the person is looking to get out of thefacebook.com, and not surprisingly, most Pepperdine students are in it for “Friendships” and “Soul Mates.” Wait, no they’re not. Most Pepperdine students are in it for “Random Play” and “Whatever They Can Get.”
The number of people at this school who are no longer ashamed to say they are interested in random college hook ups has grown exponentially, and, at least for the two of us, that is a wonderful thing.
The heightened interconnectedness this medium provides could be Armageddon for the well-documented history of non-dating at Pepperdine.
However, even with all the dramatic improvements thefacebook.com has brought to Pepperdine, it is still, some might say, nothing more than popularity propaganda.
To those people, we say don’t be frightened by the possibility that this is just another way to exclude you from the cool crowd. Even though it might be. But still, take that chance.
In fact, you can do what many people have already done and create a group with a catchy name in hopes that someone might join and then ask to be your friend.
The most popular groups include “People against Pepp Sex Policy” and “I Have a Gambling Problem.” OK, those are just two of our favorites.
We guarantee there’s somebody here at Pepperdine who shares similar interests, unless you’re into righteous mullets and pink spandex, in which case you’ll probably be alone.
Wait, we just checked, and there are actually people into that. So if you manage to join thefacebook.com and not find any friends you’re a raging loon.
And even if no groups will let you join and nobody will join the groups you create, you can always become what thefacebook.com calls a “groupie” to some other group. In this case, you will receive all the benefits of being in the group, except of course the comfort that comes with feeling like you belong.
And in case after all this advice you still don’t feel like you belong, just give us a friendly poke and we’ll be your friends.
And if we reject you, take down the picture you’ve got and replace it with the one from your junior prom.
11-11-2004