<p>Anyone else willing to make facebook friends before we leave? I'm thinking we PM info back and forth...(trying for a modicum of personal information security :))</p>
<p>gah...ok, here's what I learned over the past year at UW:</p>
<p>Facebook is a COMPLETE waste of time. It's cool for about, oh, the first day that you have it. Then it just becomes a retarded past-time in which you compulsively check to see if any of your friends have updated their profiles. Sure it's cool to post pics of you for your friends and be able to share contact info...but EVERYONE turns into a "Facebook Whore" at some point. I'm guilty of it myself. Whenever I got bored in the library, or just wanted to take a break, I would go through a cycle: Email, CC, Facebook...invariably, I would spend the most time on Facebook.</p>
<p>There are plenty of better...and less addicting...ways of keeping in contact with your friends...IE, AIM, and if your company doesn't let you use that, plain ol' Email is just as good, and not nearly as addicting. </p>
<p>Yes...I speak of Facebook as if it were a drug...in fact, it is. You get on it with the attitude of "I'm just gonna put my contact info on it for my buds." Two weeks later, you're in a mad race with your hometown friend to see who can get the most Facebook "Friends"...90% of whom you have never actually met.</p>
<p>I have no intention of creating a USNA Facebook (I say that now... :rolleyes: ) and the only reason I don't delete my UW account is because not everyone in Seattle has my address yet.</p>
<p>I have thus far been unsuccessful in quitting...they need to make a Facebook 'patch' or something. Anyway, I'm speaking from a civilian college student perspective. I highly doubt we'll have much time for Facebook...and if you do...you're probably gonna end up prayin' for that "gravy."</p>
<p>I think Facebook is really helpful for staying in touch with people I went to high school and a year of college with though. I rarely cruise people's profiles on Facebook...I just get on to see if I have any new messages or friend requests. Plus, if you need contact information on a friend, like their phone number or that, a lot of people post it so that their friends can see.</p>
<p>The big thing with Facebook or MySpace is DON'T post pictures you don't want everyone else to see. I have WAY too many friends that think it's "cool" to post 50 pictures of them underage drinking at parties. I also know that a lot of employers are now actually checking people's Facebook profiles to see what kind of person they really are. Keep your profile clean, nothing you wouldn't want your parents to see.</p>
<p>Yeah, since school ended, I've really only used it once or twice to look up a cell number...but other than that, it's pretty useless now.</p>
<p>As for the picture thing, I know the NROTC commands were crackin' down on the whole drinking thing. It didn't happen in my unit, but our CO told us several other units dismissed some mids after finding underage drinking pics on Facebook.</p>
<p>By the way people....no one thinks you are cool or badass because you have pictures of you playing beer pong or doing a beer bong on your Facebook.</p>
<p>Somehow I don't think it's a good impression to leave on others when over half their pictures are the person half naked, completely drunk, doing something illegal....but maybe that's just me.</p>
<p>okay, aside from dmeix's perspective, i love facebook. yes i might be obsessed...but i'm loving every second of it, and it's a huge aprt of plebe year (lots of time doing nothing on a friday night? facebook!)
ps. they have an officer at the academy whose job is to look through facebooks and catch people doing stuff underage or that's illegal. about a third of the brigade was fried right after reform last year. don't have upperclass friends, and don't put pictures of yourself drinking.</p>
<p>
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they have an officer at the academy whose job is to look through facebooks and catch people doing stuff underage or that's illegal.
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</p>
<p>Why doesn't this surprise me at all? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Man, to get assigned that duty you must have been caught shagging the Supe's daughter or something....</p>
<p>Zaph, TAD ENS</p>
<p>LOL!</p>
<p>Yep! That makes sense! :D</p>
<p>okay wheelah,
exactly how many upperclass "poked" you the day after Herndon???;)</p>
<p>p.s. please explain what "poked" on facebook means to the folks.</p>
[quote]
All Hail: Pokers must fold
Meghan Colloton
Posted: 3/16/05
I thought second grade was over. I thought I had left it behind with the multiplication tables and dinosaur dioramas, but alas, my past has come back to haunt me.</p>
<p>You might be asking yourself how this could possibly happen.</p>
<p>Well, remember that annoying kid who used to sit behind you in class? He used to poke you constantly until you got so angry you turned around with a look of fire in your eyes and yelled, "QUIT IT!"</p>
<p>That annoying kid has found his way back into my life. And what could be worse than one annoying kid poking you? How about several random strangers?</p>
<p>You know what I'm talking about. Unless you live under a rock, the phrase "You've been poked by (insert name)" should come to mind.</p>
<p>Yes, I am referring to that fun little feature addicted Facebookers have come to love: the poke.</p>
<p>Now don't get me wrong. I love The Facebook as much as any other guy (or girl in my case). I am an avid group joiner. I am happy to report that I am a member of the NU Students for Peanut Butter and Jelly. I wholeheartedly admit that I love getting those "You have been requested as a friend by (insert name)" e-mails. And yes, I have contests with my roommates to see who can get the most Facebook friends.</p>
<p>I admit it, I might just be a Facebook dork. But this whole poking thing really irks me. It all started when I got random pokes from one of my friends. Congratulations, with a click of your mouse you have managed to "poke" me and get my attention. I laughed after the first three times, but when poke number six and seven arrived, it wasn't so funny anymore. It was second grade all over again.</p>
<p>I wanted to turn around with that look of death on my face and get him to "QUIT IT!" but that isn't how it works in Facebook-land.</p>
<p>In this magic world, after being poked, you need to decide whether you want to poke this person back or not. In my case, this serial poker was a friend, so poking back inevitably led to another poke. And before I knew it, I was in the midst of a poking war.</p>
<p>Then sometimes you find yourself being poked by random strangers.</p>
<p>Take my roommate for example. She was "poked" by someone she did not recognize at all. Intrigued, she decided to poke the stranger back.</p>
<p>A few days later, she received this long message from the poker, explaining that he doesn't normally poke people he does not know, but he saw her picture and decided she looked interesting. He told her that after she reciprocated the poke, he thought he would send her a message.</p>
<p>So now poking could be the beginning of some psycho stalker relationship?</p>
<p>Then I started thinking, what exactly does poking accomplish? What the heck is a "poke" anyway?</p>
<p>So I went into my Facebook account and clicked on the little FAQ link. Sure enough, there was the question I was looking for: "What is poking?"</p>
<p>I eagerly clicked on the link to find the answer to my question. I shook my head in disbelief as I read:</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>How kind of those creators of The Facebook.</p>
<p>Not only was I in the midst of a poking war with my friend, but I had no idea what the heck I was doing because it was just explained to me that this "poking" feature has no purpose at all.</p>
<p>Some people claim poking is a way to get someone's attention. Some say that they poke a stranger to see if they are interested in being friends. And some say they just like to mess with people by poking them.</p>
<p>Maybe poking is fun in the world of cyberspace, but I say we aren't in second grade anymore. If you want to get my attention, send me a message, don't poke me. The creators of The Facebook don't even know what poking is.</p>
<p>So here's my piece of advice for all of you compulsive pokers out there: Next time you have the urge to click that poke button -- QUIT IT!</p>
<p>-- Meghan Colloton is a sophomore journalism major and a member of The News staff.
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</p>
<p>it's just little bit of harmless fun. meghan clearly has the sense of humor of a rock.</p>