Postcards, letters, phone calls ““ even e-mail ““ are
becoming things of the past for this year’s graduating
class.
As students complete their college careers, leaving UCLA and
memories of freshman year, fraternity parties and football games
behind, their friendships will be kept alive via today’s most
rapidly growing communications arena ““ the Internet.
Defined as the first “Facebook” graduating class by
some professors, this unique group of students have the benefits of
Internet communication advancements at their disposal, making it
possible to keep in touch with friends nations apart.
Entering UCLA at the birth of the blog era and during the glory
days of Instant Messenger, this year’s graduates witnessed
the rapid infatuation of American youth with social networking Web
sites such as friendster.com, thefacebook.com and mySpace.com.
While professors say these online social networking services are
effective ways of staying in touch with people, their ability
to
maintain long-term relationships is yet to be determined.
Tim Groeling, a communication studies professor at UCLA, put the
rapid evolution of this software in perspective as he recalled
blogging ““ keeping updated journal entries online for the
public to view ““ being a foreign concept four or five years
ago.
“There were relatively few people involved in reading or
writing them,” Groeling said. “Now most students have
heard of blogs, and a considerable proportion actually produce
them.”
Ongoing advancements in Internet communication technology have
helped facilitate programs that simplify the process of maintaining
friendships and connections.
“There has been a rapid evolution in social
software,” said Francis Steen, a communication studies
professor.
Though many students can relate to sacrificing precious time
from a paper due the next day to see the latest comments posted on
MySpace, these tools are what graduates say will help keep them in
touch after graduation.
“I made my most important friends (at UCLA),” said
Sheila Moghaddam, a graduating sociology student who is currently a
member of Friendster and MySpace. “It eats up your time fast,
but it’s a good way to stay connected.”
The social networking frenzy among college students is
flourishing, as MySpace attracts over 8 million visitors monthly,
but some professors are wary of its lasting effect.
A large advantage Thefacebook holds over other social networking
sites is its emphasis on geographic location, as students are
broken down by campus.
“Thefacebook tied it specifically to a campus ““ it
gave people a reason to sign up,” Steen said. “Online
communities under many conditions tend not to work that well unless
they are grounded in some sort of real, physical social
reality.”
For these reasons, Groeling said Web sites like thefacebook.com
won’t be more useful or valuable than e-mail following
graduation.
Thefacebook builds on users’ geographic commonality, but
when students graduate they tend to disperse, Groeling said.
“Most who actively use it now will probably stop actively
using it a few years after graduation,” he said.
While they lower the costs and simplify the maintenance of
friendships that may have otherwise been let go and provide a place
for people to re-kindle friendships later in life, social
networking software can have an important downside.
“It’s so cheap to keep in touch with people that the
fact that someone is keeping in touch with you does not carry the
same significance as it used to,” Steen said.
Pointing out another benefit of online communities, Steen said
it also opens up possibilities later on to build upon more
significant relationships.
“This is the sort of thing graduating students will find
out,” Steen said.
Graduates say planning on how to stay close with friends after
graduation is a pressing issue in the back of their minds.
“Friends are one of the most important things I’ve
gotten out of UCLA ““ just as important as the classes,”
said graduating biochemistry student Michael Yashar.
Wanting to make an effort to stay in contact with the friends he
has made, Yashar said the only thing that may hold him back is a
lack of time.
“If you can’t keep in touch, it’s not because
you don’t have the means,” he said.