<p>FYI: Yes,I posted this in the Mudd forum, but no one answered so I'm moving it out here.</p>
<p>Ok, so last year when the floorcharts came out, I was friended by several of the upperclassmen in my dorm. I (very cautiously) accepted them, and a good number of them posted friendly welcoming messages and were generally helpful in answering questions about the dorm that hadn't yet been answered by the general HMC 2012 group. When I got to school, I was able to remember the names of these upperclassmen much faster since I'd already had a little bit of face/name association from seeing their facebook profiles. So, as a frosh, the upperclassmen friending thing was an overall good experience.</p>
<p>...and back to the present: Floorcharts are going to be coming out soonish, and I've been considering friending the frosh who are going to be living near me, because I want to be friendly and welcoming and all the other cool stuff that the upperclassmen were to me last year. The thing is, I'm worried that I might get the wrong impression of these people from their facebooks, which is something I definitely don't want to do. This wasn't a problem last year since soooo many random people (both frosh and older) friended me that I couldn't keep track. But I only intend to friend the 8 or so living near me this year, and therefore will probably remember a couple of things about them.</p>
<p>So, I'm hoping that some of you upperclassmen have friended frosh before meeting them. Was it worth it? (for learning names and getting them interested in the dorm community, etc) Or do you wish that you had waited to meet them in person (because you got impressions from their facebook that were totally incorrect).</p>
<p>Well when I lived in the dorms first year, my RA encouraged us to add people on facebook and start talking to them so that once we moved in, we would be comfortable with each other and it wouldn’t be too awkward. For me personally, I would add them and introduce myself to them, saying you’re going to be living in the same building and you can have some small talks from there to get yourselves acquainted with one another. I don’t think it would be too weird or anything so why not go for it?</p>
<p>umm to be honest, the upperclassmen who added me kind of made me feel uncomfortable. Ive accepted but I dont really want to talk to them and i know if i see them next yr, it may be awkward. So in other words, you decide, but as a freshman recieving upperclassmen’s facebook requests, I think its strange.</p>
<p>Facebook becomes useful when you use it this way, that’s why I always re assure myself that I am investing my time in Facebook these days. It always helps having some friends before-hand. At the same time it can have disadvantages. You don’t really know the other person, I mean its all a virtual world. Also, you might cling on to these people and never really socialize in the new environment.</p>
<p>How is not ‘really knowing’ the other person any worse than having no knowledge of their existence, as you would otherwise? And if you are going to cling on to people then you’re going to do it whether it is people you met through facebook (which would still be socializing in the new environment, usually when people criticize clingers they’re talking about people who only hang out with their highschool friends) or the guy you ate lunch with the first day. It’s a website. Don’t be a moron and it isn’t a big deal at all.</p>
<p>I was just giving an opinion. I am totally in favor of socializing on fb. So I don’t see the point why you’d wanna get all pi**ed off about this. </p>
<p>I’m not pi**ed off at all, and I’m sorry if it came across that way. When I said ‘don’t be a moron’ I meant that if you aren’t a moron on facebook (posting pictures you wouldn’t want people to see, etc.) then facebook isn’t a big deal. I’m just constantly amused at how people still think theres a disconnect between internet and reality.</p>
<p>I kind of hope to God that I’m not called a “frosh” ever during my college career Haha, but as an upcoming freshman, I’ve been contacted by a few upperclassmen and I have no problem with it, especially if they’re in a program or club that I’m thinking about joining. It can offer some great insight.</p>
<p>I never cease to be amused by the people who think the term “frosh” is really insulting or something - like many of my HS friends last year when I referred to someone as “another frosh in my dorm”. I guess if you go to a school where the upperclassmen are jerks who like to haze the “freshman” and taunt them by calling them frosh that might be true, but otherwise its just a fairly innocent shortening of “freshman”.</p>
<p>I try to friend the upcoming freshmen who will be joining the swim team. It’s a good way for them to get answers to any questions they might have before they get here in the fall.</p>
<p>First of all, thanks to all who made useful comments. I got about exactly the responses that I expected, I just wanted to make sure my assumptions on the issue were correct before doing anything stupid.</p>
<p>swiss.miss.13:I was pretty creeped out by the upperclassmen requests at first too. I do hope that if you have accepted any, that they are at least being helpful instead of just creepily stalking your profile. But regardless of their actions(or lack thereof) during the summer I still found the facebook friending to be helpful once I got to school since it gave me a few people whose names I already knew. Although if you’re going to a big school, then maybe you’ll never meet them in which case that really is creepy…</p>
<p>chuy: I take facebook seriously in the respect that I don’t like friending people I don’t know, I have somewhat high security settings, and most relevantly, I’ve seen people freak out over facebook stuff, so I know that actions made on the site can have real world consequences even if they shouldn’t. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal to friend the freshman, since several upperclassmen had done it to me, but I just wanted to make sure that no one had had a really awful experience.</p>
<p>WantsBrown: If you were part of certain groups in Hawai’i, “brah” would be part of every day language, and not considered stupid, just as “y’all” is considered normal in some parts of Texas and the South (but sounds stupid to a lot of other people, for some reason… <unrelatedrant>I don’t get it, most other languages have a “y’all” equivalent as part of their actual language. And its a lot more accurate than "you guys</unrelatedrant>). The same goes for my use of frosh: its simply the term used at my college for freshman - even recent official mail from the college includes the words “pre-frosh summer send-off”. My high school is going to have freshmen for the first time this year (it was previously a 10-12 school), and the newsletter called the freshman counselor the “frosh counselor” (and did not shorten sophomore, junior, or senior). Its all dependent on where you live, so please don’t make assumptions.</p>
It always helps having some friends before-hand. At the same time it can have disadvantages. You don’t really know the other person, I mean its all a virtual world. Also, you might cling on to these people and never really socialize in the new environment.</p>
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Haha, but as an upcoming freshman, I’ve been contacted by a few upperclassmen and I have no problem with it, especially if they’re in a program or club that I’m thinking about joining. It can offer some great insight.</p>