Working at The Daily Bruin may be the only time I’ll ever have a job that will allow me to use office computers to spend an unhealthy amount of time on Facebook between working. And by now, there’s no need to talk about how online social networking has totally transformed college lives. Actually, I wouldn’t know exactly what it’s done. I’ve had a Facebook my entire college life.
I spend a lot of time outside of the Daily Bruin office interacting with fellow staffers on Facebook ““ or anyone who’ll “like” my status, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized that after college, Facebook will be more than stalking hotties and commenting on Justin Bieber videos. I’ll be ending my college career in two months after rounding out my political science degree with an introduction to astronomy course, and after that, I plan to move to Germany indefinitely to teach English. The truth is, I may never see most of my friends that I’ve made in the past four years and may never pick up a physical copy of the Daily Bruin again in my life.
As trite as it sounds, never before has the Internet felt so important to me. How else will I be able to find out how our editor in chief is doing at Columbia University’s journalism school or whether or not the Arts & Entertainment section is crumbling without me gracing the staff with my presence? Many of our reporters may very well go on to be prominent writers and media figures, but how else will I trace their progress if it doesn’t show up in my News Feed?
Most people only talk about how social networking sites have hindered face-to-face and in-the-moment interaction with our peers, but no one ever mentions how lucky our generation is to never have to lose touch with anyone we’ve been close with at one point in time or another. Staying in contact with every friend you’ve made is easier said than done, but keeping up with them through status updates and photo albums is convenient and realistic. Now we can sing “we will still be friends forever” and truly mean it.
Wolf was the assistant A&E theater editor for 2009-2010 and an assistant Video editor for 2008-2009.