By Lacey Ossip

Move over MySpace and Friendster, a new online social network has infiltrated the University. Everyone is now being “Facebooked.”

Mark Zuckerberg, a student at Harvard University, established this social network, www.thefacebook.com, in February 2004. The Facebook started as a network for Harvard students to locate each other with more ease and then branched out to over 130 universities and colleges around the country.

Members of the Web site can set up a profile, complete with a personal photo, lists of likes and dislikes, clubs, jobs and other interests. There is also space to list a school address, Greek organization, home address and high school attended.

“I use Facebook to stay in touch with my friends at the University and my friends at other schools,” said Daniel Manjarrez, a senior business management major.

“The Facebook is great because it lets you reconnect with friends from high school,” Andrew Pollack, an elementary education and psychology major. “Furthermore, it also lets you rediscover old friends that you lost touch with way back in freshman year.”

Users can be connected to anyone at the University with similar information. If students list the classes they are currently taking, they will automatically be linked to anyone else taking the same course.

Members can also locate students who attend other universities. There is a “global” search engine, where users can do a random search or click on any listed school to search for someone.

“It’s really weird to see people that you’ve known since you were little, and then were able to find through Facebook,” Annie Berman, a junior psychology major said. “It’s so addicting, I find myself updating my profile rather than doing my homework.”

Groups created by members are another way to link students together; however, the groups can only include people within the same school. University students have created groups for sports teams, clubs and Greek organizations. There are also some creative groups such as Napoleon Dynamite Flippin’ Sweet!!, Dare 2 Dream, Yankee Fans and even Stick Stickly for President.

“Poking” is another fun tool used on Facebook. When a student logs on to their home page, they may see a message that they have been “poked.” The creators of the Facebook said this feature is a silly alert friends can send to each other.

The Web site’s FAQ page states, “We have about as much of an idea as you do. We thought it would be fun to make a feature that has no specific purpose and to see what happens from there. So mess around with it, because you’re not getting an explanation from us.”

Another feature links friends through friends. Marissa Sampson, a senior TV and video production major, enjoys how she is linked to different students through those she has listed as her own friends.

“I’ve found that I’m connected to people I’ve never even seen on campus before through my friends and it’s an interesting way to meet new people and find out about their interests,” Sampson said.

By the first week of November, over 1000 University students were signed up and “Facebooked.”

“I can catch up with old friends and new…Facebook is like a friend encyclopedia and each day I get a new volume,” Lee Malin, a junior film studies/production major, said.

To add someone to the friends list, whether at the University or another school, the student must make a request. The “friend” will receive an e-mail from Facebook informing them they have a friend waiting to be confirmed. This prevents random people from adding someone to their friends list and seeing personal information. Only friends listed,or those in your social network, like the University, can have their profiles accessed.

The ability to access private information so freely raises safety concerns and student privacy. On Facebook, students are posting information on everything from the high school they graduated, their home address, school address, phone numbers, cell numbers and even mailbox number.

Ed Bracht, the director of Public Safety, has not personally seen the Web site; however, he has heard about the site and the Facebook fever that has hit the University.

“I believe that any information put on the Internet can be detrimental to that individual’s privacy,” he said. “With all the personal information that students are said to be placing on their profiles on this Web site, identity theft may become a problem.”

Bracht went on to express his concern for University students’ safety, since many are putting down their campus addresses and extensions.

Anyone at the University can access the personal information placed on the site by a student. The Facebook also has a privacy feature not many students are aware of. It allows the user to edit who is permitted to view their information in their profile through e-mail address, student, alumni, faculty and other features such as class year, residence hall, etc.

“I do think there is too much information given. When I first signed up, I put in all the information thinking it was for the Web site’s records,” Pollack said. “Then I started getting many calls on my cell phone and I realized my number was accessible to everyone and quickly took some information off. But you can let it be as public or as private as you want.”