Journal #1, August 31

This past week, it has been interesting to watch my friends on Facebook because almost all of us are going through the same thing: our first week of college. Whether at UIUC, other regional universities, or community colleges near my hometown, people are sharing information about their first week(s) of the school year. I haven't visited most of my friends' dorms yet, but I am getting virtual tours of their dorms through Facebook photo albums. I don't share any classes with my high school friends, but I know what many of them are taking every day through Facebook status updates. So in this way, Facebook helps me glimpse into my peers' college experiences to see things that I otherwise wouldn't get to know (at least for a while).

Like Disha, I've also looked up new UIUC people on Facebook since meeting them on campus. It is pretty fun to learn a little bit more about people and see if we have anything in common. This is often perceived as a stalker-ish activity, but I don't think that makes it wrong. People put personal information on their profile so that others can read it, right? For various reasons, they want to share aspects of themselves with their peers. I think it's a pretty useful idea! In fact, I'm not just looking up profiles of people I've just met on campus--I've met people on campus that I first met through their Facebook activity. For example, I befriended several people in Allen Hall this summer because they had joined the Allen Hall Facebook groups and posted in the discussion boards. Several weeks later, when I came to campus, it was neat (and only slightly awkard) to say hi to these people again, face-to-face.

Overall, I think Facebook has made the transition to this school year a better experience because it's helped me meet new people on this campus and keep up-to-date with my high school friends' activities elsewhere.