Wish I’da known that: Facebook

Now that I’ve returned to my long-forsaken MVNU blog, I’ll tell you how crazy I was freshman year.

I did not have Facebook.

I was a baby in the Web 2.0 world. (The one on the left. The one on the right was my sister, who got her Facebook account way after I did.)

In fact, I did not get a Facebook account until October 2007, a month and a half into my freshman year. I was one of two people I knew who did not have Facebook; everybody else was sharing photos, status updates, notes, Flair, and SuperPokes before I knew what a status update was.

These days, virtually everyone at MVNU except one of my Spanish major friends has a Facebook account and uses it. Just so you know.

Three things I recommend you not do with your Facebook account, if you already have one or decide to get one upon attending MVNU:

• Spend hours upon hours on it, gazing with longing at other people’s profiles. It’s just silly. Go talk to them instead!
• Leave yourself logged in when you’re supposed to be doing homework. It’s called a distraction. (Same with YouTube. Ignore it.)
• Send Farmville, FarmTown, Fishville, Mafia, or any of the umpteen million games to your friends. Most of them do not want to go fishing with you virtually. You might get them to go with you in real life though.

But, Facebook does have a few things it’s great for:

• Keeping in touch with old friends whose e-mail you don’t have. Freshman year I had a few friends graduate or transfer, and I was able to keep in touch with them because I was Facebook friends with them already.
• Sharing photos of really fun times. Theoretically this saves you from having to take the same group photo 8 times over.
• Organizing events with friends. Getting people to RSVP over Facebook seems a lot easier than asking them to tell you at a later date; they always forget, even if they don’t mean to.
• Sharing links with your friends. It just makes sense and you can have long comment conversations between a number of different friends who’ve all read the same linked article or whatnot.

Facebook isn’t the king of evilness or anything. But you do have to use it with some wisdom. College is a time for growing up; let’s make Facebook part of that maturing process, not a hindrance to it.

In hindsight, I’m really glad I got Facebook, but I was a very silly freshman and got on it way too much. I still do sometimes. Hey, I’m working on growing up still. 😛

Gotcha!!

Remember that game that’s played every J-term? Yep, since another year is upon us, its first month brings us another round of GOTCHA!

Warning: Not for the faint of heart. May induce paranoia. Also includes a significant danger of getting wet.

So, in between reading 40+ pages of homework a night and working a couple jobs, I’ll be avoiding any and all suspicious-looking persons… my assassin could be anyone!

I love this game. 🙂

P.S. I “hid” the most recent post before this one because it had a pretty good picture of me… I’ll reveal it again after I’ve been squirted, but until then I’m doing my best to preserve what little anonymity I have left.