CNN recently posted an article about two college freshman roommates who met on Facebook first and became best friends before meeting each other physically on campus. The article argues that Facebook is a great tool to help ease the stressful transition for freshman.
"Min is just one of the many college freshmen who will be stepping onto campuses this fall with a jump-start on their new social lives, thanks to friendships they’ve formed during the summer on the social networking site Facebook.com."
What is interesting to me is that all the stories covered in the article talk about organic peer-to-peer communication with no institutional intervention, for better or worse.
With quotes like
"…freshmen are arriving at school with ready-made friendships waiting for them on the first day."
and
"Facebook helps ease the anxiety of going off to college by giving incoming students a sense of what to expect."
and
"On college message boards within Facebook, entering students can interact with each other and with knowledgeable upperclassmen, trading useful tips and advice about starting school."
it sounds like Facebook is the holy grail that orientation departments have been looking for. If that’s the case then why are so few using it? How could they be using it? How have you used it?
The article doesn’t cover the negative side of meeting your future roommate online. I am sure for some schools that’s caused issues. Does anyone have first hand experience with this topic?
