One could say the UCLA campus and student body is now more likable due to a rise in UCLA-specific Facebook pages.
In the last few months, UCLA Facebook pages such as “People of UCLA,” “UCLA Streetsnaps & Lifestyle” and “UCLA Snaps” have gained attention and popularity on campus by featuring the stories and images of UCLA students and faculty online.
While this is not necessarily a new concept, what with the formation of the anonymous student connections website Spotted on Bruin Walk in 2010, there now seems to be a demand for other UCLA community pages.
“UCLA Snaps” posts anonymous Snapchats from students of almost meme-like scenarios happening on campus, whereas both “People of UCLA” and “UCLA Streetsnaps & Lifestyle” work more as student-run blogs in which the creators interview, photograph and then post a UCLA individual’s personal stories and interests.
Despite these different approaches, all three of the pages have gained a large amount of followers since their inception dates about three months ago. The number of Facebook “likes” reach into the hundreds, and even thousands, in the cases of “People of UCLA” and “UCLA Snaps.”
Steven Peterson, a UCLA communication studies professor who researches social networking, said online pages such as these seem to be successful because they function as catalysts to unite students who may not necessarily know of one another or what’s happening on the UCLA campus.
“Our lives are becoming more and more insular with the friends we interact with online. We may not necessarily get in contact with people outside of our social groups,” Peterson said. “This might allow us to get a taste of people in the same community, yet outside our social networks.”
He also said that Facebook’s “friend,” “like” and “share” systems allow for larger audiences and ease of access that work well with the natural human desire to present oneself to the public in a positive light.
According to a recent article published by the fact tank Pew Research Center, half of adult Facebook users have more than 200 Facebook friends. This article, titled “6 new facts about Facebook,” also states 64 percent of adult Facebook users access the site daily. This makes it more likely for Facebook users to see any posts their friends “like” or are tagged in.
Jeffrey Hsiao, a second-year molecular, cell and development biology student and creator of “UCLA Streetsnaps & Lifestyle,” markets his page as more of an on-campus student fashion blog and said he utilizes a few of these aspects of Facebook to help reach out to more UCLA members and foster the UCLA fashion community.
Hsiao said the page has developed since its conception on March 2 after he started posting at prime hours of the evening and tagging the names of the students he interviewed and photographed.
He said the page now receives about 10 new Facebook “likes” a week and has about 50 posts featuring student styles he finds on campus ranging from a skater wearing an Obey leather jacket to a student wearing a Madonna T-shirt from Hot Topic.
In order to further encourage the campus fashion community he’s striving for on his page, Hsiao said he tries to highlight definitive styles and also be personable while conducting the interviews and taking photographs.
He said these decisions have positively impacted the reach of his Facebook page as well as the number of different students who accept the short round of questioning and photographs required to be featured on his page.
For instance, Sienna Moffitt, a second-year Design | Media Arts student, was featured on “UCLA Streetsnaps & Lifestyle” by Hsiao and said she enjoyed the process because Hsiao was affable. He not only asked about the Brandy Melville shirt and Moscot sunglasses she was wearing at the time, but also asked about her treasured ukulele and book she said she always carries with her.
“It was fun because, for me in particular, I don’t own a lot of frivolous things and what I own means a lot to me,” Moffitt said. “So it was cool to be asked about the things I chose to carry with me because they mean so much, and to have someone be interested made me feel good for the rest of the day.”
Rachel Berkowitz, a second-year art and art history student and creator of “People of UCLA,” has a similar approach to how she runs her Facebook page in that she said she tries to discover who the person is on a human level before uploading the post.
While she still asks superficial, yet humorous questions such as presenting a ‘what if’ scenario in which chapstick could talk, Berkowitz said it is the deeper and more relatable stories she’s uploaded that have really influenced her to continue with her Facebook page, as well as keep the public motivated to read since its inception on Feb. 23.
“If it changes the way I feel, I feel like other people should feel that way too,” Berkowitz said. “And everyone’s just nosy.”
The story of fifth-year English and pre-nursing student Paula Smith is by far one of the most popular posts on “People of UCLA” with more than 1,100 “likes” and a reach of more than 21,000.
Smith is a 41-year-old single mother of two who, before deciding to enter community college 11 years ago, was on welfare. After realizing higher education was key to making a better life for herself, Smith said she devoted herself to her schooling for her kids, making the two-hour trip from her hometown of Oxnard to UCLA by vanpool on the days she had class. She is now graduating from UCLA this spring and has started a nonprofit organization to mentor women on welfare on the benefits of attending college.
Peterson said it’s these personal connections that students often make on Facebook that provide pages such as “People of UCLA,” “UCLA Streetsnaps & Lifestyle” and “UCLA Snaps” with staying power.
“Since Facebook is ubiquitous it also is a place where people are multiple times a day,” Peterson said. “Their social lives revolve around Facebook in many regards. These sites being on Facebook will allow them to proliferate quite a bit quicker, and quite a bit further.”