It started out as just a simple way to pass the time. I mean,
everyone was doing it, right? But while most people are just
“casual users,” I have gotten hooked by the lifestyle
““ and what a lifestyle it’s become.
Hello, my name is Kenneth Hurst, and I am addicted to the
Facebook.
If the words “poke,” “wall,”
“confirm” or “groupie” mean anything to you
outside of their everyday contexts; if you’ve ever said the
words “it’s not stalking if it’s on the
Facebook;” if you have secret (or explicit) competitions with
your buddies to see who can list the most friends; and especially
if you’ve ever missed class because you had to do an
emergency profile update; you know you’re one of the growing
number of UCLA students entranced by the Facebook.
I thought it was stupid at first. “If I want to talk to
someone, I’ll just talk to them,” I remember telling a
friend. But on Oct. 25, 2004, I joined the growing ranks with just
a few clicks of my mouse. Intending merely to test the waters, I
was instead swept out to sea ““ up the Facebook creek without
a paddle.
In retrospect, this date may not have been the best choice for
entry into the world of the Facebook, as I began midterms less than
a week later.
The first sign I was spending too much time on the Facebook
should have been my GPA, which was a full point and a half lower
than my previous average. But, hey, that was just because I was
getting started on the Facebook ““ as the quarter went by,
surely I’d spend less time online ““ my perfect profile
being complete and all. In life, it’s said that everyone gets
his 15 minutes of fame. What makes the Facebook so addicting is
that you get 24 hours of fame ““ every day. Rain or shine, 3
p.m. or 3 a.m., you can count on the fact that your profile is
visible. Anyone at school who wants to know can find out just how
cool you really are ““ or at least how cool you can make
yourself look.
With so much room to showcase my favorite movies, music, books
and quotes, as well as my political views, course load, interests
and groups, I sometimes fear that the “real” me
won’t live up to my Facebook counterpart. I can even
Photoshop my profile picture to perfection.
How is the real Kenneth supposed to compete?
I don’t know, but at least I’m not alone. As of
press time, there were 14,826 UCLA students with profiles on the
Facebook ““ almost 40 percent of the school. Have they found
themselves in the same predicament I have?
According to the Facebook’s co-founder Chris Hughes, the
plight of college students who find themselves obsessed with the
site is amusing, not sad. “I think it’s funny that
people actually refer to the Facebook as “˜addictive,’
which makes it sound like an illicit substance,” he wrote in
an e-mail interview. “Yeah, the site may be a bit addictive,
but it’s all in how you use it.”
I use it before I go to class, after class, and sometimes even
during class if I get a text message informing me that I’ve
been the victim of a poking incident.
Even while writing this article, I found myself distracted by
the Facebook. Intending (for the most part) to do research and
gather information, I often found myself updating my profile,
checking out new messages, and even joining groups ““ all
while I was supposed to be thinking about how to stop doing exactly
that.
And then it hit me. What will I do in the summer?
Will my Facebook friends still be there? Will the days of
wall-writing, poking and confirming new friends come to an end?
I sure hope not, but just in case, I’ll have to pack in my
Facebook time while I still can.
So if you’ll excuse me, I have a profile to update.
Hurst is a first-year chemical engineering student. E-mail
him at khurst@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.